"How far is that from Thingvellir?"
"Only some thirty to forty miles, sir."
"About as far as from here to there?"
"About the same, sir, but in this country of no roads and no railways that is sometimes a long day's journey."
"Just so! Good day, and thank you, Mr. Palsson!"
"Good day to you, Mr. Christiansson," said the banker, and looking after him he thought, "What does he want with two hundred thousand crowns at once, I wonder? And why--I say why did he wish to pay the interest for Magnus Stephenson?"
"Thank God I've come in time!" thought Christian Christiansson.
And going out of the Bank he told himself, with a thrill of hope and joy, that the inscrutable powers of Destiny, which seemed to have made him the plaything of chance and error, could not be wholly evil if they had brought him back to Iceland at the moment of his people's greatest peril, that he might succor and save them at their utmost need.
VI
The morning was heavy and cheerless. Dark woolly clouds were rolling over the mountains, a cold wind was coming up from the east, and the voice of the North Sea was loud and shrill.