Argosy All-Story Weekly, November 12, 1927 — page 129: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

CONRAD THE flew his banners from the battlements and refused to treat with the Viking’s mes- sengers, Hubba drew his Danes about the castle and began a siege.” “Go on, good friend!” urged Alfred ex- citedly. “It was indeed rashness on the gallant Odda’s part, for there has been hunger and sickness in Devon, and the cas- tle must have been without supplies for a siege of any length. Go on; tell us how Odda escaped from the Viking’s wrath. He lives, for you say he sent me greetings.” | “You say well that the castle was with- out supplies,” continued the messenger, with the soldier’s love for delaying a climax and playing upon the suspense of his lis- teners. ‘Inside the walls of Cynwith there was scarcely bread and meat for a fort- night, and of water there was no more than the men brought with them in their leathern flasks. There are no water springs along the shore of our district, and we were faced at once with death from thirst.” “Ves, yes,” said the king, “ and what did you do?” ‘We were surrounded, my liege. The men of our little band looked over the earthen ramparts and saw the shining hel- mets and bristling spears of the pirates on every side. We were hungry and thirsty, but no man dared take more than a morsel of bread or a sip of water at one time. “The Viking and his officers hurled taunts and jeers at our men, and said that they would march into the stronghold over our bones when we were all starved and dead, for they were resting and making merry in their camp and would not give themselves the trouble of making an assault upon our walls.” “They are lazy roisterers,’ remarked Alfred, sighing as he resigned himself to wait the pleasure of the narrator. “ Tell me, did Odda march his Devon men out of the castle and away while Hubba’s pirates lay in a drunken stupor at night?” “Nay, he did not, my liege!” said the soldier heavily, wagging his ‘head. “ But stay; V’ll not say that he never marched them out of the castle, but I will say that he never marched them away. We sat tight inside our walls, far gone with hunger and thirst, and all day and all night we SAXON. 603 heard the pirates singing and shouting over their feasts, and we knew that they were eating up the bread and meats of all the Devon homesteads, and drinking up the good ale and mead of Devon. ‘Now, your hungry, starving man is not your best fighter—for a full man, well lined and light hearted is the most spirited and valiant in battle, but a hungry fellow is a right desperate one when he hears and sees the enemy devouring all the good things that rightfully were his.” ‘You should sit down, my good man,” said the king with gentle irony, “ for the tale is a long one and you are weary from your journey.” “It’s a good tale, I promise you,” égitt the soldier, “‘ and it ‘does my heart good to tell it. I can talk better on my feet, if my liege gives me leave to stand. We were starving, I say, and all the time we heard no sounds save those of the feasting and carousing of our foes. Odda took his great sword in hand, and he spoke brave words to us. If we were trily hungry, said he—and thirsty, said he, why, then, we should find food and drink a- plenty and to spare in the great camp of the Viking. “We thought him going a bit mad from his own hunger,” the soldier paused to ex- plain, putting a check on his own growing excitement. ‘‘ But he was not mad—not Odda! He said to us that we were good fighters and brave men, and the Danes about us were growing fat and dull with too much feasting and drunken sleep. “He said, too, that the wicked Hubba would soon tire of waiting, and rouse his pirates to arm themselves again and sack the castle in a great assault. The time had come, he said, to break our fast—to strike a mighty blow for all Saxons and all Saxon homes.” “And you struck the blow?” cried Alfred, in a burst of impatience and with burning eagerness. ““ Aye, we did! At night it was, in the dark of the moon. The pirates ate and drank all day, and at night they slept—or, rather, lost their senses. Out we went, with Odda and his sword in the lead, and we did not creep nor crawl. Boldly we N”OOLKS COME Then our brave (EO)