Part 6 (1/2)

”What is it that ails you?” they would say. ”What makes your eyes burn so, and why are your cheeks so pale?”

Sir Archie would not tell them what it was that tormented him. He thought: ”What would my comrades say of me if they knew I yielded to these unmanly thoughts? They would no longer obey me if they found out that I was racked with remorse for a deed there was no avoiding.”

As they continued to press him, he said at last, to throw them off the scent: ”Fortune is playing me strange tricks in these days.

There is a girl I have a mind to win, but I cannot come at her.

Something always stands in my way.”

”Maybe the maiden does not love you?” said Sir Reginald.

”I surely think her heart is disposed toward me,” said Sir Archie; ”but there is something watching over her, so that I cannot win her.”

Then Sir Reginald and Sir Philip began to laugh and said: ”Never fear, we'll get you the girl.”

That evening Elsalill was walking alone up the lane, coming from her work. She was tired and thought to herself: ”This is a hard life and I find no joy in it. It sickens me to stand all day in the reek of fish. It sickens me to hear the other women laugh and jest in their rude voices. It sickens me to see the hungry gulls fly above the tables trying to s.n.a.t.c.h the fish out of my hands.

Oh, that someone would come and take me away from here! I would follow him to the world's end.”

When Elsalill had reached the darkest part of the lane, Sir Reginald and Sir Philip came out of the shadow and greeted her.

”Mistress Elsalill,” they said, ”we have a message for you from Sir Archie. He is lying sick at the inn. He longs to speak with you and begs you to accompany us home.”

Elsalill began to fear that Sir Archie might be grievously sick, and she turned at once and went with the two Scottish gallants who were to bring her to him.

Sir Philip and Sir Reginald walked one on each side of her. They smiled at one another and thought that nothing could be easier than to delude Elsalill.

Elsalill was in great haste; she almost ran down the lane. Sir Philip and Sir Reginald had to take long strides to keep up with her.

But as Elsalill was making such haste to reach the inn, something began to roll before her feet. It seemed to have been thrown down in front of her, and she nearly stumbled over it.

”What can it be that rolls on and on before my feet?” thought Elsalill. ”It must be a stone that I have kicked from the ground and sent rolling down the hill.”

She was in such a hurry to reach Sir Archie that she did not like being hindered by the thing that rolled close before her feet. She kicked it aside, but it came back at once and rolled before her down the lane.

Elsalill heard it ring like silver when she kicked it away, and she saw that it was bright and s.h.i.+ning.

”It is no common stone,” she thought. ”I believe it is a coin of silver.” But she was in such haste to reach Sir Archie that she thought she had no time to pick it up.

But again and again it rolled before her feet, and she thought: ”You will go on the faster if you stoop down and pick it up. You can throw it far away if it is nothing.”

She stooped down and picked it up. It was a big silver coin and it shone white in her hand.

”What is it that you have found in the street, mistress?” asked Sir Reginald. ”It s.h.i.+nes so white in the moonlight.”

At that moment they were pa.s.sing one of the great storehouses, where foreign fisher-folk lodged while they lay at Marstrand.

Before the entrance hung a lantern, which threw a feeble light upon the street.

”Let us see what you have found, mistress,” said Sir Philip, standing under the light.