The Argosy, Volume XLIV — page 140: what you’re looking at

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

136 the day before. The crew of this vessel were all the forenoon bringing her near the steep shore and mooring her with cables to the rocks in a little inlet not a stone’s throw from the Wild Woman’s hut. Even Eirik was disturbed by the ap- pearance of these men, and had it been possible he would have set sail for the Viking ship in the smack. But nothing could get out of the fiord with the wind in its present direction. So Hirik, more stolid than the American, went to work in the peat bog and paid no further at- tention to the newcomers. To try to make the haven where the Viking ship lay overland, and with a dog sledge too, would be next to im- possible, the way was so rough. Now, if it were winter, and snow was on the ground, it might be practicable. Thus he spoke; but his calmness was maddening to Feltnar. The latter could not remain at the byre, and giving the slip to Bobolink, who seemed to wish to attach himself to him, he crossed the Geogsons’ tun and slipped along the edge of the lava field under cover toward the place where the men from the strange lugger had landed. He had heard from his friends at the byre that farther along the coast there was a vessel of this size, sailing from a little hamlet, which was suspected of making trips to Ireland and Scotland and paying no duties on the goods brought from thence. Smugglers were not usually very hon- est fellows, and if these men were such, and they found the treasure aboard the ‘Viking ship, there was little doubt that they would appropriate it to their own use. Feltnar came out back of and above the hut of the Wild Woman and sat down to watch proceedings. A group of the lugger’s crew were washing nets on the rocks near her moorings. There were six or eight of them, and there were more aboard the craft. : ‘She carries a good many for s0 small a vessel,” muttered Feltnar. At that instant somebody came out of the Wild Woman’s abode and crossed the beach toward the moored ship. It was a tall man, and behind him was THE ARGOSY. the Wild Woman, who clung to his arm and seemed to be talking earnestly, while with her free hand she pointed out across the J*iord. Far out toward the sea line Feltnar saw a dark patch against the sky. He thought it one of the icebergs still float- ing in the offing. But his gaze returned instantly to the man, who now shook off the wom- an’s claw-like hand and hurried toward the lugger. He was a tall man, and the mantle he wore flowed behind him in awkward folds as he walked. Some- how his carriage, his height, some- thing about him, reminded the Amer- ican of some one he had seen before. Then he turned so that the strong sunlight fell upon the back of the man- tle. ‘here was a glint of tawdry trim- ming upon the cloak, and Feltnar was sure that some figure was worked in the back of it. He started and peered long and ear- nestly after the retreating figure. Could it be that the man’s garment was that strange cloak which he had found spread over himself when he awoke the morning after his arrival at the island? And was it possible that this man was the individual whom Felt- nar had seen beside the river in the des- ert? If this was so, then the mystery of the desert people—the men who had seized, blindfolded him, and brought him again to the shore after his wan- derings—was explained. They were the crew of this lugger— smugglers without doubt; and they had some hide-out in the desert where they cached their goods until opportunity arose for their being taken to Reyk- javik. He crept away so that he might not be seen, and went back toward the byre in a brown study. On the crest of the jokull he found Eirik standing with an old-fashioned, long barreled spy-glass at his eye, gazing earnestly out to sea. “ What is it?” he asked. “The Axar Fiord is becoming popu- lar as an anchorage,” said the young Icelander. “See what you make of yonder craft, Mr. Feltnar.” The American put the glass to his eve and got the range of the patch GORMIGOOO (COL