"But the dragons will be wakeful enough--never fear for them." So the king answered back cheerily, and other men came and listened, and so at last he turned away, leaving the men who loved him pleased and the happier for his coming thus.
Now I thought that we should have gone back to the hall; but Olaf walked away from the town, going along the shore.

The tide was just out, and the flow would soon begin.

Soon we lost sight of the last lights from the houses, and still he went on, and I followed him, not speaking, for I knew not what plans he was making.
At last we came to a place to which I had not been before, and it was lonely enough.

The forest came down to the beach, and the land was low and sheltered between the hills.

There the king stayed, sitting down on a fallen tree and resting his chin on his hand, as he looked out over the water with grave eyes that seemed to see far beyond the tossing waves.
I rested beside him, and there we bided silent for an hour or more.
There was only the sound of the wind in the storm-twisted trees behind us, and of the waves as they broke along the edge of the bare sands, where a few waking sea birds ran and piped unseen by us.