"I cover the blade! You are men; like men you speak truth.

As such, I receive you! Had you told me a lie concerning your coming here,--had you made pretense of having lost your way, or other such shifty evasion, your path would never have again crossed mine.

As it is,--welcome!" And he held out his hand with a sort of royal dignity, still resting one foot on the fallen weapon.

The young men, struck by his action and gratified by his change of manner and the genial expression that now softened his rugged features, were quick to respond to his friendly greeting, and the _bonde_, picking up and re-sheathing his hunting-knife as if he had done nothing at all out of the common, motioned them towards the very window on which their eyes had been so long and so ardently fixed.
"Come!" he said.

"You must drain a cup of wine with me before you leave.
Your unguided footsteps led you by the wrong path,--I saw your boat moored to my pier, and wondered who had been venturesome enough to trample through my woodland.