"I hear there are fifty and nine men of these Culdees yonder under the sword-priest, Maoliosa?"
"It is a true word. But to-night, after the moon is up, there shall be none."
At that, all who heard laughed, and were less heavy in their hearts because of the slaying and drowning of Haco the Laugher and all his crew.
"Where is the woman Brenda that you took?" Olaus asked, as he stared at Sweno's boat and saw no woman there.
"She is in the sea."
Olaus the White looked. It was his eyes that asked.
"I flung her into the sea because she laughed when she heard of how the birlinns that were under Somhairle the Renegade drove in upon our ships, and how Haco laughed no more, and the sea was red with viking blood."
"She was a woman, Sweno—and none more fair in the isles, after Morna that is mine."
"Woman or no woman, I flung her into the sea. The Gael call us Gall: then I will let no Gael laugh at the Gall. It is enough. She is drowned. There are always women: one here, one there—it is but a wave blown this way or that."
At this moment a viking came running across the ruined town with tidings. Maoliosa and his culdees were crowding into a great birlinn. Perhaps they were coming to give battle: perhaps they were for sailing away from that place.