Page:The Bondman; A New Saga (IA bondmannewsaga00cain).djvu/225

 two sailors who rowed, and a gentleman who sat on the seat between them. The gentleman was young, flaxen-haired, tall, slight, with a strong yet winsome face, and clad in a fox-skin coat and close fitting squirrel-skin cap. When the boat grounded by the jetty he leapt ashore with a light spring, smiled and nodded to the many who touched their hats to him, hailed others with a hearty word, and then swung into the saddle of a horse that stood waiting for him, and rode away at an eager trot in the direction of Government House.

It was Michael Sunlocks.

the men whom Michael Sunlocks sent into the interior after Adam Fairbrother and his shipwrecked company returned to him empty-handed, he perceived that they had gone astray by crossing a great firth lying far east of Hekla when they should have followed the course of it down to the sea. So, counting the time that had been wasted, he concluded to take ship to a point of the southern coast in the latitude of the Westmann Islands, thinking to meet old Adam somewhere by the firth's mouth. The storm delayed him, and he reached the firth too late; but he came upon some good news of Adam there: that all well, though sore beset by the hard weather, and enfeebled by the misfortunes that had befallen them, the little band of shipbroken men had, three days before his own coming, passed up the western bank of the firth on foot, going slowly and heavily laden, but under the safe charge of a guide from Leydisfiord.

Greatly cheered in heart at these good tidings, Michael Sun- locks had ordered a quick return, for it was unsafe, and perhaps impossible, to follow up through the narrow chasms of the firth in a ship under sail. On getting back to Reykjavík he intended to take ponies across country in the direction of Thingvellir, hoping to come upon old Adam and his people before they reached the lake or the great chasm on the western side of the valley, known as the Chasm of All Men. And thinking, amid the flutter of joyful emotions, that on the overland journey he would surely take Greeba with him, for he could never bear to