"Never have I seen its like." "Aye," exclaimed Steinar, "but an ill place to hunt it in," and he looked doubtfully at the rough gorge, covered with undergrowth, that some hundred yards farther on became dense birch forest.

"I think it would be well to ride back to Aar, and return to-morrow morning with all whom we can gather.

This is no task for three spears." By this time I, Olaf, was springing from rock to rock up the gorge, following the bear's track.

For my brother's taunts rankled in me and I was determined that I should kill this beast or die and thus show Ragnar that I feared no bear.

So I called back to them over my shoulder: "Aye, go home, it is wisest; but I go on for I have never yet seen one of these white ice-bears alive." "Now it is Olaf who taunts in his turn," said Ragnar with a laugh.