Part 28 (2/2)

”Seest thou thy love?” asked the Familiar

”Yea,” she answered, ”full clearly; he is ind and sea, butSay, what shall befall him if thou aidest not?”

”This, that he shall safely pass the Firth, for the gale falls, and come safely to Fareys, and from Fareys isles to Gudruda's arms”

”And what canst thou do, Goblin?”

”This: I can lure Eric's shi+p to wreck, and give his co him to thy arms, Swanhild, witch-mother's witch-child!”

She hearkened Her breast heaved and her eyes flashed

”And thy price, Toad?”

”_Thou_ art the price, lady,” piped the goblin ”Thou shalt give thyself to me when thy day is done, and merrily e sisters dwell in Hela's halls, andsuch tasks as this task of thine, Swanhild, and working wicked woe till the last woe is worked on us Art thou content?”

Swanhild thought Twice her breath went frohs

Then she stood, pale and silent

”Safely shall he sail the Firth,” piped the thin voice ”Safely shall he sit in Fareys Safely shall he lie in white Gudruda's arms--_hee! hee!_ Think of it, lady!”

Then Swanhild shook like a birth-tree in the gale, and her face grew ashen

”I am content,” she said

”_Hee! hee!_ Brave lady! She is content! Ah, we sisters shall be merry

Hearken: if I aid thee thus I ht-owl cos will be as I have said; thine oisdohteyes shall stand in Atli's hall, ere spring he will be thy love, and ere autuh seat in the hall of Middalhof the bride of Ospakar Draw nigh, give ain”

Swanhild drew near the toad, and, shuddering, stretched out her arm, and then and there the red blood ran, and there they sealed their sisterhood And as the nah fire shot through her veins, and fire surged before her eyes, and in the fire a shape passed up weeping

”It is done, Blood-sister,” piped the voice; ”now I must away in thy form to be about thy tasks Seat thee here before me--so Now lay thy brow uponlocks on corpse hair! See, so we change--we change Now thou art the Death-toad and I am Swanhild, Atli's wife, who shall be Eric's love”

Then Swanhild knew that her beauty had entered into the foulness of the toad, and the foulness of the toad into her beauty, for there before her stood her own shape and here she crouched a toad upon the floor

”Away to work, away!” said a soft low voice, her own voice speaking froone

But Swanhild crouched, in the shape of a hag-headed toad, upon the ground in her bower of Atli's hall, and felt wickedness and evil longings and hate boil and seethe within her heart She looked out through her sunken horny eyes and she seehts She saw Atli, her lord, dead upon the grass She saoman asleep, and above her flashed a sword She saw the hall of Middalhof red with blood

She saw a great gulf in a mountain's heart, andfast out on the sea, afire, and vanish there

Now the witch-hag ore Swanhild's loveliness stood upon the cliffs of Straumey and tossed her white ar! co! come, sleet! Put out therose up like a giant and stretched his ar! beat, rain!” she cried ”Move and beat against the gale, and blind the eyes of Eric!”