"Wait!" cried the Judge, lifting his hand.
There was no gainsaying his voice, and the guards who had stepped forward dropped back.
Then he turned to Jason again and repeated his question, "Why have you brought Michael Sunlocks here?"
At that, Jorgen Jorgensen lost all self-control and shouted, "Take him, I say!" And facing about to the Judge he said, "I will have you know, sir, that I am here for Denmark and must be obeyed."
The guards stepped forward again, but the crowd closed around them and pushed them back.
Seeing this, Jorgen Jorgensen grew purple with rage, and turning to the people, he shouted at the full pitch of his voice, "Listen to me. Some minutes past, I put a price on that man's head. I said I would give you twenty thousand kroner. I was wrong. I will give you nothing but your lives and liberty. You know what that means. You have bent your necks under the yoke already, and you may have to do it again. Arrest that man—arrest both men!"
"Stop!" cried the Judge.
"Those men are escaped prisoners," said Jorgen Jorgensen.
"And this is the Mount of Laws, and here is Althing," said the Judge; "and prisoners or no prisoners, if they have anything to say, by the ancient law of Iceland they may say it now."
"Pshaw! your law of Iceland is nothing to me," said Jorgen Jorgensen, and turning to the crowd he cried, "In the name of the King of Denmark I command you to arrest those men."