The Thrall of Leif the Lucky

O >> Ottilie A. Liljencrantz >> The Thrall of Leif the Lucky

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Probably it was because he understood the danger of pushing their
fidelity too far, that the chief gave the order to return so soon. For
his own part, he did not seem to be entirely satisfied. With one foot on
the stern of the boat, and one still on the rocks, he lingered
uncertainly.

"Yet we have not acted with this land like Biorn, who did not come
ashore," he muttered. Rolf displayed the fox-tall with a flourish.

"We have accomplished more than Eric after he had been in Greenland an
equally short time, chief. We have taken tribute from the inhabitants."
Leif deigned to smile slightly. He stepped into his place, and from the
stern he swept a long critical look over the barren coast,--from the
fox-dens up to the high-peaked mountains, and back again to the sea.

"We will give as well as take," he said at last. "I will give a name to
the land, and call it Helluland, for it is indeed an icy plain."

They were welcomed on board with a hubbub of curiosity. Almost every
article of value upon the ship was offered in exchange for the cub and
the fox-tail. The uncanny accounts of the place were swallowed with
open-mouthed greediness; so greedily that it was little wonder that at
each repetition the narratives grew longer and fuller. Told by
torchlight, at a safe distance from Leif, each boulder took on the form
of a squatting dwarf; and the faint squeaking of foxes became the
shrieking of spirits. The tale of the death-omen swelled to such
proportions that Kark would have been terrified out of his wits if he
had not rested secure in the conviction that the vision had been a wolf.
The explorers who had gotten little pleasure out of their adventure at
the time of its occurrence, came to regard it as their most precious
possession. The fire of exploration waxed hot in every vein. Every man
constituted himself a special look-out to watch for any dawning speck
upon the horizon.

With Fortune's fondness for surprising mankind, the next of the
"wonder-shores" crept upon them in the night. The sun, which had set
upon an empty ocean, rose upon a low level coast lying less than twenty
miles away. In the glowing light, bluffs of sand shone like cliffs of
molten silver; and more trees were massed upon one point than the whole
of Greenland had ever produced. Even Leif was moved to exclaim at the
sight.

"Certainly this is a land which names itself!" he declared. "You need
not wait long for what I shall fix upon. It shall be called Markland,
after its woods."

Sigurd's enthusiasm mounted to rashness. "I will have a share in this
landing, if I have to plead with Leif for the privilege," he vowed. And
when, for the second time, Rolf was told off for a place in the boat,
and for the second time his claims were slighted, he was as reckless as
his word.

"Has not my credit improved at ail, after all this time, foster-father?"
he demanded, waylaying the chief on his descent from the forecastle. "I
ask you to consider the shame it will bring upon me if I am obliged to
return to Norway without having so much as set foot upon the new-found
lands."

For awhile Leif's gaze rested upon him absently, as though the press of
other matters had entirely swept him out of mind. Presently, however,
his brows began to knit themselves above his hawk nose.

"Tell those who ask, that you were kept on board because a strong-minded
and faithful watchman was needed there," he answered curtly, and turned
his back upon him.

Robert the Fearless was standing at the side, gazing eagerly toward the
shore. As though suddenly reminded of his existence, the chief stopped
behind him and touched him on the shoulder.

"The Norman is as much too modest as his friend is too bold," he said,
with a note of his occasional courtliness. "A man who has thought it
worth while to travel so far is certainly entitled to a share in every
experience. Let Robert Sans-Peur go down and take the place that is his
right."

As the boat bounded away with the Fearless One on the last bench,
Sigurd's face was a study. Between mortification and amusement, it was
so convulsed that Rolf, who shared the Norman's seat, could not restrain
his soft laughter.

"Whether or not the Silver-Tongued has given his luck to you, it is seen
that he has none left for himself," he laughed into his companion's ear.

The Norman bent to his oar with a petulant force that drove it deep into
the water and far out of stroke.

"Whether or not he has any left for himself, it is certain that he has
given none of it to me," he muttered. "Here are we at our second
landing, and no chance have I had yet to endanger my life for the chief.
Nor do I see any reason for expecting favorable prospects in this
tame-appearing land. Is it of any use to hope for wild beasts here?"

The Wrestler regarded him over his shoulder with amused eyes. "Is it
your opinion that Leif Ericsson needs your protection against wild
beasts?" he inquired.

Under the Norman's swarthy complexion, Alwin of England suddenly
flushed. When a wish is rooted in one's very heart, it is difficult to
get far enough away to see it in its true proportions.

The cliffs of gleaming silver faded, on the boat's approach, into
gullied bluffs of weather-beaten sand; but the white beach that met the
water, and the green thickets that covered the heights, remained fair
and inviting. No fear of dark omens along that shining sand; no danger
of evil spirits in that sunlit wood. All was pure and bright and fresh
from the hand of God. In place of a spur, the explorers needed a
rein,--and a tight one. But for the chief's authority, they would have
spread themselves over the place like birds'-nesting boys.

"Ye know no more moderation than swine," Leif said sternly, checking
their rush to obey the beckoning of the myriad of leafy hands. "And ye
are as witless as children, besides. Have ye not learned yet that cold
steel often lies hid under a fair tunic? We will divide into two bands,
as we did at our first landing; and I forbid that any man shall separate
himself from his party, for any reason whatsoever."

Then he proceeded to single out those who were to follow him; and to the
great joy of Robert of Normandy, he was included in that favored number.

Valbrand's men crashed away through bush and bramble; and the chief's
following threw themselves, like jubilant swimmers, into the sea of
undergrowth. Now, waist-high in thorny bushes, they tore their way
through by sheer force of strength. Now they stepped high over a network
of low-lying vines, ankle-bonds tougher than walrus hide. Again,
imitating the four-footed pioneer that had worn the faint approach to a
trail, they crawled on their hands and knees. Every nest they chanced
upon, and each berry bush, paid a heavy toll; but they gave the briers a
liberal return in the way of cloth and hair and flesh.

"I think it likely that I could retrace my steps by no other means than
the hair that I have left on the thorns," Eyvind the Icelander observed
ruefully, when at last they had paused to draw breath in one of the few
open spaces.

The Fearless One overheard him and laughed. "When I found that my locks
were liable to be pulled off my head entirely, I disposed of them in
this manner," he said. He was leaning forward from his seat on a fallen
oak to shew how his black curls were tucked snugly inside his collar,
when a shriek of pain from the thicket behind them brought every man to
his feet.

The chief ran his eye over the little group. "It is Lodin that is
missing," he said. "Probably he lingered at those last berry bushes."
Knife in hand, he plunged into the jungle.

While a rustling green curtain still hid the tragedy, the rescuers
learned the nature of their companion's peril; for suddenly, above the
cries for help and the crash of trampled brush, there rose the roar of
an infuriated bear.

Alwin's heart leaped in his breast, and his nostrils widened with such a
fierce joy as won him the undying respect of the sportsmen around him.
Pushing past his comrades, he tore his way through the tangle of twining
willowy arms and gained the side of the chief.

Leif pushed aside the last overhanging bough, and the conflict was
before them.

Locked in the embrace of as big a bear as it had ever been their luck to
see, stood Lodin the Berry-Eater. That the beast had come upon him from
the rear was evident, for the chisel-like claws of one huge paw had torn
mantle and tunic and flesh into ribbons; but in some way the Viking must
have managed to turn and grapple with his foe, for now his distorted
face was close to the dripping jaws. Two bloody mangled spots upon
either arm showed where the brute's teeth had been; but if the bear's
paws were gripping the man's shoulders, still the man's hands were
locked about the bear's ears. That the pair had been down once, leaves
and dirt in hair and fur were witness; and now they went down again,
ploughing up the earth, screaming and panting, growling and roaring; one
of the brute's hind legs drawing up and striking down in a motion of
terrible meaning.

It was too ghastly a thing to watch inactive. Already every man's knife
was in his hand, and three men were crouching for a spring, when the
chief swept them back with a stern gesture.

"Attacking thus, you can reach no vital part," he reminded them. And he
shouted to the struggling man, "Feign death! you can do nothing without
your weapon. Feign death."

It appeared to Alwin that to do this would require greater courage than
to struggle; but while the words were still in the air, the man obeyed.
His hands relaxed their hold; his head fell backward on the ground; and
he lay under the shaggy body like a dead thing. The black muzzle poked
curiously about his face, but he did not stir.

After a suspicious sniff, the victor appeared to accept the truth of his
conquest. Exactly as though he said, "Come! Here is one good job done;
what next?" he got up with a grunt, and, rising to his hind feet, stood
growling and rolling his fiery little eyes from one to another of the
intruders in the brush.

"If now one could only hurl a spear at his heart!" murmured the sailor
at Alwin's shoulder. But the difficulties of path-finding through an
unbroken thicket had kept the men from cumbering themselves with weapons
so unwieldy.

Leif spoke up quickly, "There is no way but to trust to our knives.
Since I am superior to any in strength, I will grapple with him first.
If I fail, which I do not expect, I will preserve my life as Lodin is
doing; and the Fearless One here shall take his turn."

Alwin was too wild with delight to remember any-thing else. "For that, I
thank you as for a crown!" he gasped.

Even as he stepped out to meet the foe, Leif smiled ironically.
"Certainly you are better called the Fearless than the Courteous," he
said. "It would have been no more than polite for you to have wished me
luck."

Anything further was drowned in the bear's roar, as he took a swift
waddling step forward and threw out his terrible paws. Even Leif's huge
frame could not withstand the shock of the meeting. His left hand caught
the beast by the throat and, with sinews of iron, held off his foaming
jaws; hut the shock of the grappling lost him his footing. They fell,
clenched, and rolled over and over on the ground; those terrible hind
feet drawing up and striking down with surer and surer aim.

Alwin could endure it no longer. "Let me have him now!" he implored. "It
is time to leave him to me. The next stroke, he will tear you to pieces.
I claim my turn."

It is doubtful if anyone heard him: at that moment, swaying and
staggering, the wrestlers got to their feet. In rising, Leif's hold on
the bear's throat slipped and the shaggy head shot sideways and fastened
its jaws on his naked arm, with a horrible snarling sound. But at the
same moment, the man's right arm, knife in hand, shot toward the mark it
had been seeking. Into the exposed body it drove the blade up to its
hilt, then swerved to the left and went upward. The stroke which the
chisel-shod paws had tried for in vain, the little strip of steel
achieved. A roar that echoed and re-echoed between the low hills, a
convulsive movement of the mighty limbs, and then the beast's muscles
relaxed, stiffening while they straightened; and the huge body swayed
backward, dead.

From the chief came much the same kind of a grunt as had come from the
bear at the fall of his foe. Glancing with only a kind of contemptuous
curiosity at his wounded arm, he stepped quickly to the side of his
prostrate follower and bent over him.

"You have got what you deserve for breaking my orders," he said, grimly.
"Yet turn over that I may attend to your wounds before you bleed to
death."

In the activity which followed, Robert of Normandy took no part. He
leaned against a tree with his arms folded upon his breast, his eyes
upon the slain bear which half of the party were hastily converting into
steaks and hide. The men muttered to each other that the Southerner was
in a rage because he had lost his chance, but that was only a part of
the truth. His fixed eyes no longer saw the bear; his ears were deaf to
the voices around him. He saw again a shadowy room, lit by leaping
flames and shifting eyes; and once more a lisping voice hissed its
"jargon" into his ear.

"I see Leif Ericsson standing upon earth where never man stood before;
and I see you standing by his side, though you do not look as you look
now, for your hair is long and black... I see that it is in this new
land that it will be settled whether your luck is to be good or bad..."

He said slowly to himself, like a man talking in his sleep, "It has been
settled, and it is to be bad."

Then the room passed from his vision. He saw in its place Rolf's
derisive smile, and heard again his mocking query: "Is it your opinion
that Leif Ericsson needs your protection against wild beasts?"

Of a sudden he flung back his head and burst into a loud laugh that
jarred on the ear like grating steel.

When at last Lodin's wounds were dressed so that he could be helped
along between two of his comrades, the party began a slow return. By the
time they came out on to the shining white beach again, they were a
battered-looking lot. There was not a mantle among them but what hung in
tatters, nor a scratched face that did not mingle blood with berry
juice. But at their head, the huge bear skin was borne like a captured
banner. At the sight of it, their waiting comrades burst into shouts of
admiration and envy that reached as far as the anchored ship.

"Never was such sport heard of!"--"A better land is nowhere to be
found!" they clamored. "In one month we could secure enough skins to
make us wealthy for the rest of our lives!"

And then some muttered asides were added: "It is a great pity to leave
such a place."--"It is folly to give up certain wealth for vague
possibilities." And though the dissatisfaction rose no louder than a
murmur, it spread on every hand like fire in brush.

Now there was one man among the explorers who had been a member of Biorn
Herjulfsson's crew, and was brimful of conceit and the ambition to be a
leader among his fellows. When the command to embark swelled the murmurs
almost to an outspoken grumbling, he thought he saw a chance to push
into prominence, and swaggered boldly forward.

"If it is not your intention to come back and profit by this discovery,
chief, I must tell you that we will not willingly return to the ship.
Certainly not until we have secured at least one bear apiece. We are
free men, Leif Ericsson, and it is not to our minds to be led altogether
by the--"

Whether or not he had meant to say "nose," no one ever knew. At that
moment the chief wheeled and looked at him, with a glance so different
from Biorn Herjulfsson's mild gaze that the word stuck in the fellow's
throat, and instinctively he leaped backward.

Leif turned from him disdainfully, and addressed the men of his old
crew. "Ye are free men," he said; "but I am the chief to whom, of your
own free wills, you have sworn allegiance on the edge of your swords. Do
you think it improves your honor that a stranger should dare to insult
your chosen leader in your presence?"

"No!" bellowed Valbrand, in a voice of thunder.

And Lodin shook his wounded arm at the mutineer. "If my hand could close
over a sword, I would split you open with it," he cried.

The other men's slumbering pride awoke. Loyalty seldom took more than
cat-naps in those days, in spite of all the hard work that was put upon
her.

"Duck him!"--"Souse him!"--"Dip him in the ocean!" they shouted. And so
energetically that the ringleader, cursing the fickleness of rebels,
found it all at once advisable to whip out his sword and fall into a
posture of defence.

But again Leif's hand was stretched forth.

"Let him be," he said. "He is a stranger among us, and your own words
are responsible for his mistake. Let him be, and show your loyalty to
your leader by carrying out his orders with no more unseemly delay."

They obeyed him silently, if reluctantly; and it was not long before
those who had remained on ship-board were thrown into a second fever of
envious excitement.

They were not pleasant, however, the days that followed. In the flesh of
those who had missed the sport, the bear-fight was as a rankling thorn.
The watches, during which a northeast gale kept them scudding through
empty seas with little to do and much time to gossip, were golden hours
for the growth of the serpent of discontent. Though the creature did not
dare to strike again, its hiss could be heard in the distance, and the
gleam of its fangs showed in dark corners. If Leif had had Biorn's bad
fortune, to begin at the wrong end of his journey, so that a barren
Helluland was the climax that now lay before him, the hidden snake might
have swelled, like Thora Borga Hiort's serpent-pet, into a devastating
dragon.

Was it not Leif's luck that the land which was revealed to them, on the
third morning, should be as much fairer than their vaunted Markland as
that spot was pleasanter than Greenland's wastes?--a land where, as the
old books tell, vines grew wild upon the hills, and wheat upon the
plains; where the rivers teemed with fish, and the thickets rustled with
game, and the islands were covered with innumerable wild fowl; where
even the dew upon the grass was honey-sweet!

As they gazed upon the blooming banks and woods and low hills, warm and
green with sunlight, cries of admiration burst from every throat.

Valbrand made bold to warn his chief, "Though I do not dispute your will
in this, any more than in anything else, I will say that difficulties
are to be expected if men are to be parted from such a land without at
least tasting of its good things."

Even for those who had been longest with him, the Lucky One was full of
surprises.

"It has never been my intention to continue sailing after we had
accomplished the three landings," he answered quietly. "Ungrateful to
God would we be, were we to fail in showing honor to the good things He
has led us to. I expect to stay over winter in this place."

CHAPTER XXVI

VINLAND THE GOOD

"... They sailed toward this land, and came to an
island lying north of it, and went ashore in fine
weather and looked round. They found dew on the
grass, and touched it with their hands, and put it
to their mouths, and it seemed to them that they
had never tasted anything so sweet as this dew.
Then they went on hoard and sailed into the
channel, which was between the island and the cape
which ran north from the mainland. They passed the
cape, sailing in a westerly direction. There the
water was very shallow, and their ship went
aground, and at ebb-tide the sea was far out from
the ship. But they were so anxious to get ashore
that they could not wait till the high-water
reached their ship, and ran out on the beach where
a river flowed from a lake. When the high-water
set their ship afloat they took their boat and
rowed to the ship and towed it up the river into
the lake. There they cast anchor, and took their
leather-bags ashore, and there built
booths."--FLATEYJARBO'K.

It was October, and it was the new camp, and it was Helga the Fair
tripping across the green background with a skirtful of red and yellow
thorn-berries and a wreath of fiery autumn leaves upon her sunny head.

Where a tongue of land ran out between a lake-like bay and a river that
hurried down to throw herself into its arms, there lay the new
settlement. Facing seaward, the five newly-built huts stood on the edge
of a grove that crowned the river bluffs. Behind them stretched some
hundred yards of wooded highland, ending in a steep descent to the
river, which served as a sort of back stairway to the stronghold. Before
them, green plains and sandy flats sloped away to the white shore of the
bay that rocked their anchored ship upon its bosom. Over their lowly
roofs, stately oaks and elms and maples murmured ceaseless
lullabies,--like women long-childless, granted after a weary waiting the
listening ears to be soothed by their crooning.

"I have a feeling that this land has always been watching for us; and
that now that we are come, it is glad," Helga said, happily, as she
paused where the jarl's son leaned in a doorway, watching Kark's
cook-fires leap and wave their arms of blue smoke. "Is it not a
wonderful thought, Sigurd, that it was in God's mind so long ago that we
should some day want to come here?"

"It is a fair land," Sigurd agreed, absently. And then for the first
time Helga noticed the frown on his face, and some of the brightness
faded from her own.

"Alas, comrade, you are brooding over the disfavor I have brought upon
you!" she said, laying an affectionate hand upon his arm. "I act in a
thoughtless way when I forget it."

Sigurd made a good-natured attempt to arouse himself. "Do not let that
trouble you, _ma_mie_," he said, lightly. "When ill luck has it in her
mind to reach a man, she will come in through a window if the door be
closed. It is a matter of little importance."

He patted the hand on his arm and his smile became even mischievous.
"Still, I will not say anything against it if you wish to pay some
forfeit," he added. "See,--yonder Leif sits, playing with the bear cub
while he waits for his breakfast. Now, as he turns his eyes upon us, do
you reach up and give me such an affectionate kiss as shall convince him
forever that it was for love of me that you fled from Norway."

A vigorous box on the ear was his answer; yet even before her cheeks
cooled, Helga relented and turned back.

"Even your French foolishness I will overlook, for the sake of the
misfortune I have been to you. Take now a handful of these berries, and
make the excuse that you wish to give them to the bear. While you do so,
speak to Leif strongly and tell him your wish. That he is playing with
the cub is a sign that he is in a good humor."

Sigurd's eyes wandered wistfully beyond the cook-fires and the
storehouses to the last hut in the line, before which a dozen men were
buckling on cloaks and arming themselves, in a bustle of joyful
anticipation. He thrust out his palm with sudden resolve.

"By Saint Michael, I will! I had sworn that I would never entreat his
leave again, but this time there is no one near enough to witness my
shame if he refuses me. There--that is sufficient! It is needful that I
make haste: yonder come Eyvind and Odd with the fish; Kark will not be
long in cooking it."

Carefully careless, he strolled past the open shed in which the
new-found wheat was being stored, past the sleeping-house and a group of
fellows mending nets, and came to the great maple-tree under which a
rough bench had been placed. There, like a Giant Thrym and his
greyhounds, Leif sat stroking his mustache thoughtfully, while with his
free hand he tousled the head of the camp pet.

Scenting dainties, the bear deserted his friend and shambled forward to
meet the newcomer. The chief raised his eyes and regarded his foster-son
over his hand, seemingly with less sternness than usual. Yet he did not
look to be so blinded by good-nature that he would be unable to see
through manoeuvring. Sigurd decided to strike straight from the
shoulder.

The cub, finding that the treat was not to be had in one delicious gulp,
rose upon his haunches and threw open his jaws invitingly. While he
tossed the berries, one by one, between the white teeth, Sigurd spoke
his mind.

"It is two weeks now, foster-father, since the winter booths were
finished and you began the practice of sending out exploring parties. In
all those days you have but once permitted me to share the sport. I ask
you to tell me how long I shall have to endure this?"

It appeared that the hand which stroked the chief's mustache also hid a
dry smile.

"You grasp your weapon by the wrong end, foster-son," he retorted. "You
forget that each time I have chosen an exploring party to go out, I have
also chosen a party to remain at home and guard the goods. How is it
possible that I could spare from their number a man who has shown
himself so superior in good sense and firm-mindedness--"

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