The Roots of the Mountains Page 14

  CHAPTER XIII. THEY FARE TO THE HUNTING OF THE ELK.

  WHEN they came into the Hall, the hearth-fire had been quickened, and thesleepers on the floor had been wakened, and all folk were astir. So theold man sat down by the hearth while Gold-mane busied himself in fetchingwood and water, and in sweeping out the Hall, and other such works of theearly morning. In a little while Hall-face and the other young men andwarriors were afoot duly clad, and the Alderman came from his chamber andgreeted all men kindly. Soon meat was set upon the boards, and men broketheir fast; and day dawned while they were about it, and ere it was alldone the sun rose clear and golden, so that all men knew that the daywould be fair, for the frost seemed hard and enduring.

  Then the eager young men and the hunters, and those who knew the mountainbest drew together about the hearth, and fell to talking of the huntingof the elk; and there were three there who knew both the woods and alsothe fells right up to the ice-rivers better than any other; and thesesaid that they who were fain of the hunting of the elk would have nolikelier time than that day for a year to come. Short was the redebetwixt them, for they said they would go to the work at once and makethe most of the short winter daylight. So they went each to his place,and some outside that House to their fathers’ houses to fetch each manhis gear. Face-of-god for his part went to his shut-bed, and stood byhis chest, and opened it, and drew out of it a fine hauberk of ring-mailwhich his father had made for him: for though Face-of-god was a deftwright, he was not by a long way so deft as his father, who was thedeftest of all men of that time and country; so that the alien merchantswould give him what he would for his hauberks and helms, whenso he wouldchaffer with them, which was but seldom. So Face-of-god did on thishauberk over his kirtle, and over it he cast his foul-weather weed, sothat none might see it: he girt a strong war-sword to his side, cast hisquiver over his shoulder, and took his bow in his hand, although he hadlittle lust to shoot elks that day, even as Stone-face had said;therewithal he took his skids, and went forth of the hall to the gate ofthe Burg; whereto gathered the whole company of twenty-three, andGold-mane the twenty-fourth. And each man there had his skids and hisbow and quiver, and whatso other weapon, as short-sword, or wood-knife,or axe, seemed good to him.

  So they went out-a-gates, and clomb the stairway in the cliff which ledto the ancient watch-tower: for it was on the lower slopes of the fellswhich lay near to the Weltering Water that they looked to find the elks,and this was the nighest road thereto. When they had gotten to the topthey lost no time, but went their ways nearly due east, making way easilywhere there were but scattered trees close to the lip of the sheercliffs.

  They went merrily on their skids over the close-lying snow, and were soonup on the great shoulders of the fells that went up from the bank of theWeltering Water: at noon they came into a little dale wherein were a fewtrees, and there they abided to eat their meat, and were very merry,making for themselves tables and benches of the drifted snow, and pilingit up to windward as a defence against the wind, which had now arisen,little but bitter from the south-east; so that some, and they the wisest,began to look for foul weather: wherefore they tarried the shorter whilein the said dale or hollow.

  But they were scarcely on their way again before the aforesaid south-eastwind began to grow bigger, and at last blew a gale, and brought up withit a drift of fine snow, through which they yet made their way, butslowly, till the drift grew so thick that they could not see each otherfive paces apart.

  Then perforce they made stay, and gathered together under a bent which bygood luck they happened upon, where they were sheltered from the worst ofthe drift. There they abode, till in less than an hour’s space the driftabated and the wind fell, and in a little while after it was quite clear,with the sun shining brightly and the young waxing moon white and high upin the heavens; and the frost was harder than ever.

  This seemed good to them; but now that they could see each other’s facesthey fell to telling over their company, and there was none missing saveFace-of-god. They were somewhat dismayed thereat, but knew not what todo, and they deemed he might not be far off, either a little behind or alittle ahead; and Hall-face said:

  ‘There is no need to make this to-do about my brother; he can take goodcare of himself; neither does a warrior of the Face die because of alittle cold and frost and snow-drift. Withal Gold-mane is a wilful man,and of late days hath been wilful beyond his wont; let us now find theelks.’

  So they went on their ways hoping to fall in with him again. No longstory need be made of their hunting, for not very far from where they hadtaken shelter they came upon the elks, many of them, impounded in thedrifts, pretty much where the deft hunters looked to find them. Therethen was battle between the elks and the men, till the beasts were allslain and only one man hurt: then they made them sleighs from wood whichthey found in the hollows thereby, and they laid the carcasses thereon,and so turned their faces homeward, dragging their prey with them. Butthey met not Face-of-god either there or on the way home; and Hall-facesaid: ‘Maybe Gold-mane will lie on the fell to-night; and I would I werewith him; for adventures oft befall such folk when they abide in thewilds.’

  Now it was late at night by then they reached Burgstead, so laden as theywere with the dead beasts; but they heeded the night little, for the moonwas well-nigh as bright as day for them. But when they came to the gateof the Thorp, there were assembled the goodmen and swains to meet themwith torches and wine in their honour. There also was Gold-mane comeback before them, yea for these two hours; and he stood clad in hisholiday raiment and smiled on them.

  Then was there some jeering at him that he was come back empty-handedfrom the hunting, and that he was not able to abide the wind and thedrift; but he laughed thereat, for all this was but game and play, sincemen knew him for a keen hunter and a stout woodsman; and they had deemedit a heavy loss of him if he had been cast away, as some feared he hadbeen: and his brother Hall-face embraced him and kissed him, and said tohim: ‘Now the next time that thou farest to the wood will I be with theefoot to foot, and never leave thee, and then meseemeth I shall wot of thetale that hath befallen thee, and belike it shall be no sorry one.’

  Face-of-god laughed and answered but little, and they all betook them tothe House of the Face and held high feast therein, for as late as thenight was, in honour of this Hunting of the Elk.

  No man cared to question Face-of-god closely as to how or where he hadstrayed from the hunt; for he had told his own tale at once as soon as hecame home, to wit, that his right-foot skid-strap had broken, and evenwhile he stopped to mend it came on that drift and weather; and that hecould not move from that place without losing his way, and that when ithad cleared he knew not whither they had gone because the snow hadcovered their slot. So he deemed it not unlike that they had gone back,and that he might come up with one or two on the way, and that in anycase he wotted well that they could look after themselves; so he turnedback, not going very swiftly. All this seemed like enough, and a littlematter except to jest about, so no man made any question concerning it:only old Stone-face said to himself:

  ‘Now were I fain to have a true tale out of him, but it is little likelythat anything shall come of my much questioning; and it is ill forcing ayoung man to tell lies.’

  So he held his peace, and the feast went on merrily and blithely.