They listened as if he might be a man of rank and a leader among them, but hidden by the bushes were ears that understood the tongue in which he and they were speaking, and there were other ears which did not interpret.
"It is of no use to question this Greek of ours, O Knud," whispered one to another of two strong men in the ambush, but his own face and his manner asked a question.
"Be thou silent, Tostig the Red," replied Knud. "Watch him. Do as he doeth!"
For Lysias was muttering low in Greek, "He betrayed my father in Corinth. He would surely destroy me. He is a liar and he must die."
To the head he drew his long arrow, and his companions hindered him not, for his face was burning with wrath, and it pleased them to see him raise his bow.
"He is a young warrior," they thought. "He knoweth what these have spoken."
Truly sped the arrow, and the tall old Corinthian traitor was smitten through the face, so that he spoke no more. Up sprang his companions, wild with fear, but another and another of them went down before they could escape among the trees, for the spears of Tostig and Knud followed the arrows of Lysias and they three followed closely, sword in hand.
"I think," said Knud the Bear when he and his friends returned from a brief chasing, "that too many escaped. I have counted but eleven slain. I will ask the Greek his reasons for this when we reach an interpreter."
"Take all coin from these who are slain," said Lysias, but he made his words plain by action.
"They are Greek and Roman coins," said Knud. "We may need them. I am learning much concerning coins. Oswald, the harper, hath many, but I cared not for them. A sword is better than money."