Njord's frown deepened. "If this is how you would repay the best advice you will hear the whole length of this river, then give me my part of the reward now and I will be gone from your sight."

"No," said the king firmly, "you will stay. The ships are here, little thanks to you. Now it is for you to earn your silver and get them safely across the cataract, for that is what you agreed to do. Fail in this and you will have the reward you deserve."

Emboldened by these words, the slight pilot stirred himself from his indolence and began ordering the preparation of the boats. "Stand you aside," he said, "and watch well what I shall do."

As before, the ships were emptied. Then Njord began to display the acumen for which he was acclaimed, but of which we had heretofore seen so little demonstration. He ordered the oars to be removed and the masts struck. He commanded tall fir trees to be cut from the forest and trimmed of all branches; other trees were cut to use as levers. Then the empty hulls were pulled from the river and dragged with ropes over the bank on the round logs.

It must be said that, once begun, Njord warmed to his task and acquitted himself well. He seemed always to know just the right place where a lever would be needed, and could foresee difficulties before they arose and took steps to overcome them, or at least mitigate their severity. By day's end we had one ship beyond the rapids and another half way along.

That night we camped on the bank and commenced again the next morning in a chill rain which began at daybreak. The rain made the task more difficult, for the paths grew muddy and the men's feet slipped, and the wet poles were difficult to grip. However, the remaining vessels were smaller than the king's longship, and could be moved more quickly and with somewhat less effort. Night found us with the last two ships more than half way along the dry course. At dawn the Patzinaks attacked.

King Harald was the first to perceive the danger, and it was his bull roar which roused the work-weary Danemen from their sleep. If not for this, I have no doubt we would have been slaughtered where we lay. Up we rose as one man, spears in hand-for raiding Sea Wolves always sleep with a weapon ready, especially when on land.

The Patzinaks were small and dark and shrewd, striking with quick, furious thrusts of their wide-bladed spears and axes before darting away again. All the dodging and feinting made them hard to hit. This frustrated the Sea Wolves, who much preferred a foe to stand his ground and trade blow for blow. The Patzinaks had encountered Danemen before, however, and had learned best how to deal with a more powerful opponent.

Harald saw how they meant to wear down his men, or perhaps through frustration to draw them into a fatal blunder, so he signalled his men to retreat to the ships and make their stand on the riverbank. There, with backs to the solid oak hulls, they stood to face the feisty Patzinaks.

When the foemen saw that the Sea Wolves would no longer be drawn into the open, they soon lost interest in pursuing the fight further. But, far from discouraged, they simply changed their stratagem; retreating a short way off, they held council and elected an envoy to proceed under the sign of the willow branch.

As the envoy approached, the king motioned me to him. "We will speak to them, you and I," he said. "Though I think we will hear little to our liking."

When the Patzinak party had come within fifty paces, they halted and waited for us. The king, ten of his house karlar, and myself went out to meet them. The king, frowning mightily, scanned the ranks of foemen, sharp disdain furrowing his brow and making his lip curl.

Up spoke the envoy's leader, uttering an unintelligible stream of gibberish. When this produced no effect, he tried another tongue, which was, if anything, even more incomprehensible than the first. Seeing that neither of us understood him, he abandoned this speech and tried yet a third: "I give you good greeting, men," he said in sorry Latin.

This I understood well enough and replied in kind, telling Harald what he said.

"We see that you are not afraid to fight," the envoy continued smoothly. "Therefore, it has pleased our lord to allow you to pass through our lands unmolested."

I repeated his words to King Harald, whose response was ready. "Your lord has a most peculiar way of expressing his pleasure," the king grumbled. "Yet, I have been worse hindered. Fortunate for your lord and for all who follow him that I have lost no men, for we would certainly be having a very different manner of discussion at this moment."

"That is indeed true, Your Greatness. For this, you can thank my lord, who ever extends his hands in brotherhood to those who desire his friendship." The envoy, a slight dark man who was missing most of his right ear, paused, smiled affably, and added, "Of course, such friendship is best established with due and proper consideration." He rubbed the palm of his right hand with the fingertips of the left.

"It seems to me," replied Harald, once I had conveyed the envoy's words to him, "that your lord extends his hands for a more tangible reward than brotherhood alone."

The envoy smiled and shrugged. "The demands of friendship are many, and not without obligations of their own. A man of your undoubted eminence must certainly find this to be so."

King Harald shook his head when he heard this. "They are cheerful thieves," he told me. "Ask them how much silver it will take to establish this bond of friendship between us."

I asked, and the envoy answered: "It is not for me to say, Gracious King. Rather look at your men and ships and weigh their worth in your sight. As you are a man of obvious rank, I am certain you will behave accordingly."

Harald considered this and summoned one of his karlar who hastened back to the longship, returning on the run with a small leather bag. Reaching into the bag, the king drew out a silver armband.

"This is for friendship," he said, placing the silver in the Patzinak envoy's outstretched hand. "And this," Harald continued, reaching in again, "is for the friendship of my men." He placed a smooth-polished yellow gem in the envoy's hand. "And this," he said, reaching into the bag a third time, "is for the future good will between our peoples should we happen to pass this way again." He placed a green gem beside the yellow one, then closed the bag and passed it back to his man.

"I would have thought," said the envoy, peering disappointedly at the objects in his hand, "that a man of your estimable worth would have placed a much higher value on the friendship between our peoples."

"I desire only the merest acquaintance," was Harald's retort. "I do not wish to marry your lord or any of his people, agreeable though they may be."

The Patzinak envoy did not like this. He sighed and pulled on his chin, gazing at the loot in his hands and shaking his head sadly from side to side as if he were contemplating a tragic mistake. "I am loath to believe," he said at last, dropping the treasure into the bag at his side, "that your new friends hold so little value in your eyes. I fear it is most distressing. No doubt when my lord hears of the small esteem in which you hold him, he will require additional blandishments."

"How foolish of me," replied Harald upon my relation of these words, "I have forgotten to mention that in addition to the silver and gems which you have so swiftly hidden from sight, I am also giving you and your wealth-lusting lord the gift of your lives." The Sea Wolf king paused to await the effect his words would have; and when the envoy raised protest against this line of reasoning, Harald said, "What? Do you place so little value on your own heads?"

With that, he drew his axe and prepared to signal his men to renew the fight. The Patzinak envoy gaped at him and said, "Now that I understand you better, I am amply persuaded of your earnest desire for our friendship. Therefore, I will endeavour to present your generous offer to our lord. Still, I would remind you that you must pass this way again when you return home. And I would beg you to consider well what manner of welcome you wish to receive upon your return."