“It is seen from the hoof-marks that he has not turned aside. We need not wait long to overtake—”
“Suppose he should not want to turn back—”
“Heard I never of a jarl’s hunt that began by hunting the Jarl’s son!”
“He was quiet in riding out of the Town with us; what caused him to spur ahead?”
“Only that he had a whim to be alone, as he is apt.”
“I remember how he broke away once last spring.”
“It may be that this fall he has done it once too often. Starkad is wroth.”
So the talk ran on until the tall leader drew rein, signalling to those behind him to check their pace.
“Slowly!” he said. “Yonder is his horse tethered. It would ill become us to ride upon Starkad’s son as though we were charging a boar.”
“Even though we shall be as ill-received as if we were,” the youngest of the horsemen added with a laugh of some uneasiness.