"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I couldn't have believed it of Oscar. But who knows how he may have been tempted? Perhaps he was poor, yes, perhaps after all he was in want and they offered him money. There are such ups and downs in these foreign countries--perhaps he was starving in the streets of London----"
"He wasn't in London at all, Anna. He was at Monte Carlo, or Nice, or somewhere."
"Then you mean he only wanted the money to--the same as before, when he--I won't believe it!"
"Be quiet, mother," said Magnus, with the hoarse croak of a raven, and then turning to the Rector, "Who did it--the work itself, I mean?"
"Hans, the sailor--they could get nobody else, it seems."
"Hans, the sailor," repeated Magnus, in the same hoarse croak, and while the table creaked under the clutch of his great hands, his face grew hard and ugly.
During the remainder of that day Magnus went about without speaking to any one, and next morning, after the strangers had started on their journey, he saddled Silvertop and rode off toward Reykjavik. Anna saw him go, and calling to Jon Vidalin, she said:
"Take the fastest horse and ride to town by the low road and find Hans, the sailor. Tell him to fly before Magnus comes and never to come back again."
XIII
When Magnus returned to the farm three days afterward he was like another man. His face was no longer hard and ugly, it was as soft as a tender woman's, and he was smiling down at something that looked like a huge bundle which he carried on the saddle in front of him. Anna saw him crossing the bridge, and she ran out to meet him.