Gurth

“ Why shouldn’t I marry Ruth Adrian?’
‘I don’t know,’ stammered Gurth, hardly knowing what he was saying. ‘Why, I always looked upon you as a—as a——’
‘Say it,’ cried Marston fiercely; ‘say it, Gurth Egerton. You always looked upon me as a scamp, as a penniless adventurer. Bah! Times have changed for both of us. You are a rich man now; you are ambitious, so am I. I have wiped out my old past as cleanly as you have yours. Let it be a race between us now if you like, Gurth Egerton—a race for wealth, a race for fame, for what you will. ”

“ Toward morning a shriek went piercing through· the burg, like the strong hinny of a horse in pain. But the dawn brought mercy.
Men knew not what to think. It was so sudden. None dreamed of foul play. Gurth, who might have had motive, was away. His chosen champions lingered round the bed, full of low-spoken anecdotes of his worth, his kingly rage, and social heart. He was the greatest of the Vikings, they said; the type of a good man.
On the third morning, Hrolf and Gerda stood with the rest over him, for the new-returned champions had insisted upon their release. ”

“ What could you—an adventurer, a runaway from America, a penniless schemer—say or do that would injure a man of my wealth and position? Come, what do you want? A thousand—two thousand? Name your figure, take a cheque, and disappear. You are good at disappearing, you know.’
Marston had controlled himself with difficulty for some time, but when, in stinging tones of contempt, Gurth offered him money—offered to buy Ruth of him, as it were—his calmness forsook him. With a flushed face and flashing eyes he sprang forward and seized Gurth by the shoulders. ”

“ I may as well be plain, Gurth. In the old days we didn’t choose our phrases, and we needn’t now. You are paying a good deal too much attention to Ruth Adrian, and I strongly object to it.’
‘I have no doubt you do,’ answered Gurth; ‘but the young lady may not.’
‘Tush, man! we are not rehearsing a comedy. Drop your repartee. Ruth does object to your visits very much.’
‘I am sorry to hear it; but I visit her parents’ house at her parents’ invitation.’
‘Good. Then you’ll remain away in future at my invitation.’
‘What the deuce do you mean, Mr. Marston?’
‘What I say. ”

“ Gurth’s countenance kindled. “Wamba,” he said, “thou hast a weapon and thy heart was ever stronger than thy brain. We are only two, but a sudden attack from men of resolution might do much. Follow me!”
“Whither, and for what purpose?” asked the jester.
“To rescue Cedric.” ”

“ Gurth the reeve helped them, but he was ailing already with the sickness, and not much use.
Grimhild, a strong-faced, huge woman, managed all the house, but Gudrid helped her now willingly. There were no maids there. In the evenings they sat by the fire and told tales. It was as merry as might be, and with Thorstan Black there was always some fun to be had. He was the lightest-hearted man and the happiest whom Gudrid had seen in Greenland, where mostly, it seemed, men had to fight with life at too long odds to have any heart left over for pastime. ”

“ Gurth was determined to know if possible, so he ascertained Marston’s address and went round to him.
He was struck with the comfort and taste of Eden Villa, and he began to think that perhaps, after all, Marston had had a windfall.
He was received with easy courtesy, and Marston rather enjoyed the astonishment under which his visitor was evidently labouring.
‘By Jove, Ned, I’d no idea you were such a swell as this!’ said Gurth, looking about him.
‘It isn’t a bad crib,’ answered Marston quietly; ‘but I’m looking about for an estate in the country; I’m tired of town life. ”

“ Thorstan Black owned to it. "There is no people but ours of Iceland, I do believe, who would hold out against this white death," he said. "So fast as we come we die of it. Then come others, and so the game goes on. It is the fighting we love; we were always fighters—what with horses, or our young men. But here we fight with the earth, sea and sky, and do little slaughter of our own kind."
"It is the fog that kills us," said Grimhild; and Gurth smothered his cough and hugged himself over the fire.
Gudrid said: "Why should you stay here? I think it is a terrible country. ”

“ As Gertie grew more and more into the young lady, Marston recognised more than ever the likeness to the man who had come to a violent end in Josh Heckett’s gambling den.
Intuitively he felt that Gertie was a thorn in Gurth’s side. For her to be living in his (Marston’s) house, his ward, as it were, would be a strange revolution of the wheel of fate. He felt, moreover, that it would be galling to Gurth. He did not forget that Gurth had once expressed a desire to do something for Gertie himself. ”

“ Gurth, meanwhile, had “conquered the living.” The rovers disliked him, but the trophies of their excursions they laid at his feet. That slight, dark man acquired an iron power over them. They feared him. Ditlew, the Berserk, the jotun-furious, and least erect of all the spirits of the burg-guard, returning from a voyage on the Throndheim coast, and deeming himself ill-rewarded with his share of booty, deserted at dead of night, and sped fugitive, his horse burdened with stolen things. ”

“ So Gurth kissed the dead, as Harold had done before him, and came up and sate himself by his brother's feet, and rested his head on Harold's knee; nor would he speak till, appalled by the long silence of the Earl, he drew away the mantle from his brother's face with a gentle hand, and the large tears were rolling down Harold's cheeks.
"Be soothed, my brother," said Gurth; "our father has lived for glory, his age was prosperous, and his years more than those which the Psalmist allots to man. Come and look on his face, Harold, its calm will comfort thee." ”

“ Thou shalt find the winter’s rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly!”
Gurth paused on the threshold an instant listening to the singing, then entered without knocking. The little boys rushed to hang about him and explore his pockets, and the pastor and Theresa welcomed him warmly. It was Andrea alone who saw a change in his whole demeanour, and wondered at the bird-cages. The evening meal was soon eaten, and the boys went to the kitchen with the toys that Gurth had brought them ”

“ Ruth was grateful to Gurth for the interest he took in Gertie. She knew he was rich, and she had heard he was a charitable gentleman. He entered into all her philanthropic schemes, begged that she would be his almoner and let him know of any deserving cases she came upon in her visits to the sick and poor. Altogether Gurth Egerton proved himself a most desirable acquisition to the Adrian family circle, and was highly approved of by everyone but Lion.
Lion always growled at him, and nothing would induce him to be friendly. ”

“ I am for gathering together and husbanding. No idleness on the lands while I lord it here! Let every thrall do his sweating: everyone bring his share from land or sea. He who fails will know me better. I call a cheer! ”
Silence reigned. Malignity and a painful anxiousness contorted the face of Gurth. But, slowly, the men stood up and drank.
When a snore or two began to sound, he rose and glided across the courtyard. Frigga’s lamp, westering low, burned dim in the heavens. After passing three corridors, he tapped at a door, and was admitted into a chamber by old Gunhild, the vala of the burg. ”

“ Gurth said, "the Welshmen will not attack us until we are entangled among their hills."
"It depends upon how well they are led, my Lord Gurth," Wulf said. "If they are well led they may attack us to-night, for they must know of our approach, and will think it probable that we shall, being so near our own border, be at first careless. The Bretons gave us just such a lesson, and inflicted heavy loss upon the Norman army." ”

“ He knew how, moreover, that perhaps Gurth might have some day appealed to him if the settlement had been less satisfactory, and though he owed his present position entirely to Gurth’s assistance in early days, he was by no means inclined to return, the compliment.
Men of Birnie’s stamp never return anything, unless it is an I O U in answer to a friend’s appeal for help.
Ruth’s solicitors were dealing not only with the affairs of Miss Egerton, but they also, at Ruth’s request, undertook the task of releasing George Heritage. ”

“ I’ve travelled and got tired of it, and now I want a change—I want something to do.’
‘My dear fellow, of course you do,’ answered the doctor, ‘and with your energy you might do anything. Collect postage-stamps, coins, fossils, write stories for the magazines, join an amateur dramatic club, go in for athletics, learn the banjo. Why, my dear fellow, with your leisure and your money, there is no end of things you might find to do!’
Gurth turned almost savagely on his companion. The bantering tone displeased him.
‘Drop it, Birnie!’ he said. ‘Don’t you know when a man’s in earnest? ”

“ Harm, vala? Why should not I, myself... ’’
“ What? ”
“ Well — rain — marry her."
Gunhild looked calmly sidelong at the cunning, oily face.
“ And so make quite sure of the wealth of the dead Jarl, Gurth? ”
He chuckled low. “ A wish to get, and increase in store, is but natural to us all.”
“ Yet do you, Gurth,” she answered, shaking a warning finger, “curb well your lust for wealth! for if I read right the signs . . . but fie! Gerda is for none of your marrying. There is whiteness already in your hair.”
“ When — when will Sigurd return? ”

“ The familiar use of the Christian name grated on Gurth’s ears.
‘Yes; but I presume Miss Adrian does not propose to keep her always, and I thought——’
‘You need not trouble yourself about Gertie Heckett, my dear fellow,’ answered Marston, lighting a cigar. ‘I shall look after her. Her story’s a very sad one, and I like to do good when I can. I’m going in for being a friend to the orphan, and I shall begin with Gertie Heckett.’
‘You don’t mean it?’
‘I do, my boy, seriously. If you want a field for your benevolence you must look elsewhere. I object to your adopting Gertie—or Ruth. ”

“ On leaving the King, a warm discussion between the brothers took place. But Gurth's arguments were stronger than those of Harold, and the Earl was driven to rest his persistence on his own special pledge to Githa. ”

“ "In the name of God!" said Gurth, "how came they prisoners?—And to whom?"
"Our master was too ready to fight," said the Jester; "and Athelstane was not ready enough, and no other person was ready all. ”

“ That which swills and eats heavily, and plays the mischief. Nay, give me a dark ghyll in Iceland, with a river racing down its length, and the sea never far off. That means more to me than your vines and soft winters. As for this stricken land, we shall beat the sickness yet. A man tempers himself. There should be a fine race here one day, of them who have got through."
Gurth turned up the whites of his eyes. He was very sick.
By and by they had news from the Settlement, where things were going badly. The sickness was very rife. Many of Thorstan's men from Ericsfrith were dead of it. ”

“ The rovers, hardly now observing, could not perceive from the distance that the sunset Haines which wrapped her were not the flames which destroy.
Old Gunhild, by some lucky stroke of divination, had said to Gurth: “ You will conquer the living — but beware of the dead. ”

“ He was haunted by a constant terror, not that his crime would come to light, but that he might lose the result of it.
On the last afternoon he spent with Ralph Egerton, the dipsomaniac had boasted of having the marriage certificate in his own keeping. That certificate Gurth had never been able to find among the papers of which he had taken possession.
He had furnished the house which the old miser had occupied in the street off Russell Square and carried everything there, leaving Birnie to live at Ralph’s villa at St. John’s Wood. ”

“ Gurth Egerton left him much perplexed about the disposal of his property, and went away charged with a message to Birnie.
‘Tell him to give us a look in if he can,’ groaned Josh ‘I’m deuced bad, and I can’t sleep. If he sees me he can give me summat as will let me sleep; he’s done it afore. Tell him I shan’t trouble him much longer, but I’d like for to see him if I can.’
Gurth took the thin, trembling hand of the old man and shook it gently.
‘I’ll tell him,’ he said. ‘He’ll come and see you, Josh. He doesn’t forget old friends, though he is such a big pot now.’
‘No, no,’ said Heckett ”

“ Without daring to remonstrate, the companions of Gurth bound him with a halter, as the readiest cord which occurred. He submitted to the operation without any protest, except that he darted a reproachful look at his master.
“To horse, and forward!” ordered Cedric.
“It is indeed full time,” said the Saxon prince Athelstane, who accompanied Cedric, “for if we ride not faster, the preparations for our supper will be altogether spoiled.”
The travelers, however, used such speed as to reach the convent of Saint Withold’s before the apprehended evil took place. ”

“ The garrison at once set to work to replace the planking of the bridge, and this was accomplished by the time that the Saxon earl, accompanied by several thanes, and followed by a strong body of troops, reached the platform at the other end. As he did so Beorn and Wulf crossed the bridge to meet him.
"You have done well indeed, thanes!" Gurth exclaimed. "You have made a conquest to be proud of; for as we rode along this place seemed to us well-nigh impregnable. ”