CHAPTER THREE.
DARK WAR-CLOUDS LOWER, BUT CLEAR AWAY WITHOUT A SHOWER--VOICES AND LEGSDO GOOD SERVICE.
"Up, carls, buckle on your war-gear!" cried Leif, rising hastily onhearing the announcement with which the last chapter ended.
"Run, Thorward, call out our men," whispered Karlsefin; "I will stay tolearn what Leif means to do. Bring them all up to the door."
Thorward was gone almost before the sentence was finished. Leif and hishouse-carls, of whom there were ten present at the time, did not takelong to busk them for the fight. The Norse of old were born, bred, andburied--if they escaped being killed and cut to pieces--in the midst ofalarms. Their armour was easily donned, and not very cumbrous. Evenwhile Leif was giving the first order to his men, Gudrid had run to thepeg on which hung his sword and helmet, and brought him these implementsof war.
"My men and I shall be able to render you some service, Leif," saidKarlsefin; "what do you intend to do?"
"Do!" exclaimed Leif with a grim laugh, as he buckled on his sword,"why, I shall give the Skraelingers a tremendous fright, that is all.The rascals! They knew well that we were short-handed just now, andthought to take advantage of us; but hah! they do not seem to be awarethat we chance to have stout visitors with us to-night. So, lads,follow me."
Biarne, meanwhile, had darted out on the first alarm, and assembled allthe men in the settlement, so that when Leif, Karlsefin, and thehousemen issued out of the cottage they found about a dozen menassembled, and others running up every moment to join them. Beforethese were put in array most of the men of Karlsefin's ship, numberingforty, and those belonging to Thorward, numbering thirty, came up, sothat when all were mustered they were little if at all short of onehundred stout warriors.
The moon came out brightly at the time, and Leif chuckled as he watchedBiarne put the men hastily into marching order.
"Methought you said that war was distasteful," observed Karlsefin, insome surprise.
"So it is, so it is, friend," replied Leif, still laughing in a lowtone; "but there will be no war to-night. Leave your bows behind you,lads," he added, addressing the men; "you won't want them; shield andsword will be enough. For the matter of that, we might do without both.Now, lads, follow my leading, and do as I bid you; advance with aslittle noise as may be."
So saying, Leif led the way out of the little hamlet towards theextremity of the ridge or spur of the mountains that shelteredEricsfiord from the north-west.
Towards that same extremity another band of men were hastening on theother side of the ridge. It was a band of our hairy friends whom theNorsemen called Skraelingers.
Truly there was something grand in the look and bearing of the tall manwith the flat face, as he led his band to attack the warlike Norsemen,and there was something almost sublime in the savage, resolute aspect ofthe men who followed him--each being armed with a large walrus spear,and each being, moreover, an adept in the use of it.
Flatface (in default of a better, let that name stick to him) hadascertained beyond a doubt that the entire available force of Norsemenin Ericsfiord had, in consequence of fishing and other expeditions, beenreduced to barely thirty fighting men. He himself could muster a bandof at least one hundred and fifty good men and true--not to mentionhairy, a hundred and fifty seals having unwillingly contributed theircoats to cover these bloodthirsty Skraelingers. The Norsemen, Flatfaceknew, were strong men and bold, besides being large, but he resolved totake them by surprise, and surely (he argued with himself) a hundred andfifty brave men with spears will be more than a match for thirty sleepymen unarmed and in bed!
Flatface had screwed himself up with such considerations; made a fewmore inflammatory speeches to his men, by way of screwing them up also,and then, a little before midnight, set forth on his expedition.
Now it chanced that there was a man among the Norsemen who was a greathunter and trapper. His name was Tyrker--the same Tyrker mentioned byLeif as being the man who had found grapes in Vinland. Leif said he wasa German, but he said so on no better authority than the fact that hehad originally come to Norway from the south of Europe. It is much moreprobable that he was a Turk, for, whereas the Germans are known to be awell-sized handsome race of fair men, this Tyrker was an ugly littledark wiry fellow, with a high forehead, sharp eyes, and a small face;but he was extremely active, and, although an elderly man, few of theyouths in Ericsfiord could beat him at feats requiring dexterity.
But, whether German or Turk, Tyrker was an enthusiastic trapper ofwhite, or arctic foxes. These creatures being very numerous in thatpart of Greenland, he was wont to go out at all hours, late and early,to visit his traps. Hence it happened that, on the night in question,Tyrker found himself in company with two captured arctic foxes at, theextremity of the mountain spur before referred to.
He could see round the corner of the spur into the country beyond, butas the country there was not attractive, even at its best, he paid noattention to it. He chanced, however, to cast upon it one glance aftersetting his traps, just as he was about to return home. That glancecalled forth a steady look, which was followed by a stare of surprise,and the deep guttural utterance of the word "zz-grandimaghowl!" which,no doubt, was Turkish, at that ancient date, for "hallo!"
It was the band of hairy creatures that had met his astonished sight.Tyrker shrank behind the spur and peeped round it for a few seconds tomake quite sure. Then, turning and creeping fairly out of sight, herose and bounded back to the hamlet, as though he had been a youth oftwenty. As we have seen, he arrived, gasping, in time to warn hisfriends.
Between the hamlet and the spur where Tyrker's traps were set there wereseveral promontories, or projections from the cliffs, all of which hadto be passed before the spur came in view. Leif led his men past thefirst and second of these at a run. Then, believing that he had gonefar enough, he ordered his band to draw close up under the cliffs, wherethe shadow was deepest, saying that he would go alone in advance toreconnoitre.
"And mark me, lads," he said, "when I give a loud sneeze, do you givevent to a roar that will only stop short of splitting your lungs; thengive chase, and yell to your hearts' content as you run; but see to itthat ye keep together and that no man runs past _me_. There is plentyof moonlight to let you see what you're about. If any man tries toovershoot me in the race I'll hew off his head."
This last remark was no figure of speech. In those days men were buttoo well accustomed to hewing off heads. Leif meant to have his ordersattended to, and the men understood him.
On reaching the second projection of cliff after leaving his men, Leifpeeped round cautiously and beheld the advancing Skraelingers severalhundred yards off. He returned at once to his men and took up aposition at their head in the deep shadow of the cliffs.
Although absolutely invisible themselves, the Norsemen could see theSkraelingers quite plainly in the moonlight, as they came slowly andwith great caution round each turn of the footpath that led to thehamlet. There was something quite awe-inspiring in the manner of theirapproach. Evidently Flatface dreaded a surprise, for he put each legvery slowly in advance of the other, and went on tiptoe, glancingquickly on either side between each step. His followers--in a compactbody, in deep silence and with bated breath--followed his steps and hisexample.
When they came to the place where the men crouched in ambush, Leif tookup a large stone and cast it high over their heads. So quietly was thisdone that none even of his own party heard him move or saw the stone,though they heard it fall with a _thud_ on the sand beyond.
The Skraelingers heard it too, and stopped abruptly--each man on oneleg, with the other leg and his arms more or less extended, just as ifhe had been suddenly petrified. So in truth he had been--with horror!
To meet an open enemy, however powerful, would have been a pleasurecompared with that slow nervous advance in the midst of such deadsilence! As nothing followed the sound, however, the suspended legsbegan to descend slowly again towards the ground, when Leif sneez
ed!
If Greenland's icy mountains had become one monstrous polar bear, whosepowers of voice, frozen for prolonged ages, had at last found vent thatnight in one concentrated roar, the noise could scarcely have excelledthat which instantly exploded from the Norsemen.
The effect on the Skraelingers was almost miraculous. A bomb-shellbursting in the midst of a hundred and fifty Kilkenny cats could nothave been more effective, and the result would certainly have borne somemarks of resemblance. Each hairy creature sprang nearly his own heightinto the air, and wriggled while there, as if impatient to turn and flybefore reaching the ground. Earth regained, the more active among themovershot and overturned the clumsy, whereby fifty or sixty wereinstantly cast down, but these rose again like spring-jacks and fled,followed by a roar of laughter from their foes, which, mingled as it waswith howls and yells, did infinitely more to appal the Skraelingers thanthe most savage war-cry could have done.
But they were followed by more than laughter. The Norsemen immediatelygave chase--still yelling and roaring as they ran, for Leif set theexample, and his followers remembered his threat.
Karlsefin and Biarne kept one on each side of Leif, about a pace behindhim.
"If they fight as well as they run," observed the former, "they must betroublesome neighbours."
"They are not bad fighters," replied Leif; "but sometimes they deem itwise to run."
"Not unlike to other people in that respect," said Biarne; "but it seemsto me that we might overhaul them if we were to push on."
He shot up to Leif as he spoke, but the latter checked him.
"Hold back, Biarne; I mean them no harm, and wish no bloodshed--onlythey must have a good fright. The lads, no doubt, would like to run inand make short work of them; but I intend to breathe the lads, whichwill in the end do just as well as fighting to relieve their feelings.--Enough. It is ill talking and running."
They were silent after that, and ran thus for fully an hour, at nearlythe top of their speed. But Leif sometimes checked his men, andsometimes urged them on, so that they fancied he was chasing with fullintent to run the Skraelingers down. When the fugitives showed signs offlagging, he uttered a tremendous roar, and his men echoed it, sendingsuch a thrill to the hearts of the Skraelingers that they seemed torecover fresh wind and strength; then he pushed after them harder thanever, and so managed that, without catching or killing one, he terrifiedthem almost out of their wits, and ran them nearly to death.
At last they came to a place where there was an abrupt bend in themountains. Here Leif resolved to let them go. When they were prettynear the cliff round which the path turned, he put on what, in modernsporting phraseology, is termed a spurt, and came up so close with theflying band that those in rear began to glance despairingly over theirshoulders. Suddenly Leif gave vent to a roar, into which he threw allhis remaining strength. It was taken up and prolonged by his men. Thehorror-struck Skraelingers shrieked in reply, swept like a torrent roundthe projecting cliff, and disappeared!
Leif stopped at once, and held up his hand. All his men stopped shortalso, and though they heard the Skraelingers still howling as they fled,no one followed them any farther. Indeed, most of the Norsemen werepanting vehemently, and rather glad than otherwise to be allowed tohalt.
There were, however, two young men among them--tall, strong-boned, andthin, but with broad shoulders, and grave, earnest, though not exactlyhandsome countenances--who appeared to be perfectly cool and in goodwind after their long run. Leif noticed them at once.
"Yonder youths seem to think little of this sort of thing," he said toKarlsefin.
"You are right, Leif; it is mere child's play to them. These are thetwo Scots--the famous runners--whom I was charged by King Olaf topresent to you. Why, these men, I'll engage to say, could overtake theSkraelingers even yet, if they chose."
"Say you so?" cried Leif. "Do they speak Norse?"
"Yes; excellently well."
"Their names?"
"The one is Heika, the other Hake."
"Ho! Hake and Heika, come hither," cried Leif, beckoning to the men,and hastening round the point, where the Skraelingers could be seennearly a mile off, and still running as if all the evil spirits of theNorth were after them.
"See there, carls; think you that ye could overtake these rascals?"
The Scots looked at each other, nodded, smiled, and said they thoughtthey could.
"Do it, then. Let them see how you can use your legs, and give them ashout as you draw near; but have a care: do them no hurt, and see thatthey do no injury to you. Take no arms; your legs must suffice on thisoccasion."
The Scots looked again at each other, and laughed, as if they enjoyedthe joke; then they started off like a couple of deer at a pace which noNorseman legs had ever before equalled, or even approached.
Leif, Biarne, and the men gazed in speechless wonder, much to theamusement of Karlsefin and Thorward, while Hake and Heika made straightfor the flying band and came up with them. They shouted wildly as theydrew near. The Skraelingers looked back, and seeing only two unarmedmen, stopped to receive them.
"As the saying goes," remarked Biarne, "a stern chase is a long one; butto-night proves the truth of that other saying, that there is no rulewithout an exception."
"What are they doing now?" cried Leif, laughing. "See--they are mad!"
Truly it seemed as if they were; for, after separating and coursingtwice completely round the astonished natives, the two Scots performed aspecies of war-dance before them, which had a sort of fling about it,more easily conceived than described. In the middle of this they made adart at the group so sudden and swift that Hake managed to overturnFlatface with a tremendous buffet, and Heika did the same to his secondin command with an energetic cuff. The Skraelingers were taken sothoroughly by surprise that the Scots had sheered off and got out ofreach before a spear could be thrown.
Of course a furious rush was made at them, but the hairy men might aswell have chased the wind. After tormenting and tantalising them alittle longer, the Scots returned at full speed to their friends, andthe Skraelingers, glad to be rid of them, hastened to seek the shelterof the gloomy gorge from which they had originally issued, "like a wolfon the fold."