She bade him stand
behind her. Harald the hostage, not seeing him, walked back towards the
boat bearing the two oars over his shoulder. Then suddenly Allan
confronted him.
"So, my brave viking, you would escape, eh?" he said, smiling at the
lad's discomfiture.
Harald frowning and with flashing eyes laid the oars across the boat's
thwarts, and grasping the gunwale tried to launch her. Aasta, making
pretence to help him, pulled the opposite way and the boat did not move.
Then seeing that he was intercepted the lad promptly whipped out his
dirk and sprang towards Allan with his weapon raised.
Allan stepped aside, yet did not attempt to unsheathe his sword. Harald
followed upon him, but in an instant Aasta had leapt behind him and
flung her plaid in a loop over his head. With a vigorous tug at the two
ends of the garment she pulled him over and he fell upon his back. Allan
seized the dirk that dropped from the lad's hand and threw it aside.
Grasping Harald's two wrists he then turned him over, planting his knee
upon his back.
"Now, Aasta," said Allan calmly, "methinks we had best secure his arms
with my plaid. Give me an end of it that we may twist it; so. Now lace
it well under his arms while I bring it round his legs. There; he will
not readily draw himself out of that noose. I will leave him in your
care until I launch Ronald Gray's boat.
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