It is a marvel.
"Now, Lord, you will forgive me, no doubt."
"Ay, freely," I said, turning round sharply. "That is, if your
friend has a sword as good as this," and I shewed him the gemmed
hilt of Ina's gift from beneath the folds of my great cloak.
He stared at it, and then at my face again, and I took off my cap
to him with a bow.
"It is strange that a shipmaster knows not his own passenger," I
said.
But he was dumb for a moment, and his mouth opened. Nona laughed at
him and clapped her hands with glee, and I must laugh also.
"By Baldur," he gasped, "if it is not Oswald, in the flesh! What
witchcraft brought you here? To my certain knowledge there is no
ship but mine afloat now in the Severn Sea."
"Why, then, I crossed with you, friend," I said.
"That you did not--" he began, but stopped short.
"Thorgils, Thorgils--the sick man!" cried Nona.
"Oh!" said Thorgils, "can you have been Evan's charge?"
"Ay. Mind you that it was your own word that there might be danger
from the friends of Morgan?"
Then I told him all, and he heard with growls and head shakings,
which but for the presence of the lady might have been hard sayings
concerning my captors.
But when I ended he said:
"If ever I catch the said Evan there will be a reckoning. All the
worse it will be for him that for these five years past I have
known him, and deemed him a decent and trustworthy man, for a Welsh
trader.
Pages:
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191