But I fear how he may send me back." "He will give you ship and men, and so see that there is no chance of any great trouble with Arnkel." "Aye--but--but, Malcolm, he says that he needs must find someone who will help me hold the land.

Who will that be, for he can spare so few ?" "I think that he will let you make your own choice," I answered.
"If I might--" she said, and there stopped, seeming troubled.
Then I said, "And if you might, who would be the choice ?" She looked at me and paled, and then looked away at the berries again.

She stooped to pick one, and her face was away from me.
"I think it is cruel to ask that," she said in a low voice.

"I have no one here whom I know--save you, and Bertric." I moved a pace nearer to her, but still she did not look up.

The crimson berries she bent over were no excuse for the colour of her face at that moment, and I feared I had angered her.
"Gerda," I said, "have you forgotten how that in the holy island I was wont to say that I should not rest until your were back in your home ?" "I thought that you had forgotten," she said in a low voice.