Gerda heard me coming, and met me at the same spot where we had first spoken of this matter.

She saw that I had come to tell her what we had said thereof.
"What of the others ?" she asked anxiously.
"They have spoken in all thought for you, even as I knew they would," I answered.

"We are at one in thinking that the sea grave is most fitting." She asked me why, as if to satisfy some doubts which she yet had, and I must needs tell her therefore what our own dangers were, though I made as light of them as I could.

I told of the perils of a lee shore to this under-manned ship; of the chance of meeting another ship at any time here on the Norway coast; of crews and of wreckers who would hold naught sacred; of the chance of our drifting thus idly for many days in this summer weather--all chances which were more likely than the quiet coming to the islands where my father's name was known and honoured enough for us to find help.

From these chances it was best to save the king, who was our care, and at once.