The penthouse chamber was open, and it seemed to be filled with a
white light and soft, and in the doorway stood the old king,
beckoning to me, so that, for all my fears, I must needs go to him.
Yet there was naught for me to fear in the look which he turned on
me.
"Friend," he said, "the old sea which I love should be my grave.
See to it that so it shall be. Then shall you do the bidding of the
maiden whom I have loved, my son's daughter, and it shall be well
with you, and with those friends of yours and of mine who sleep
yonder."
Therewith he paused, and his glance went to the things which lay
round the boats and in them--the things which had been set in the
ship for the hero to take to Asgard with him.
"See these things," he said again. "They are hers, and not mine.
There will be a time when she will have need of them. In the place
where I shall be is no need of treasure, as I deemed before I knew.
Nor of sword, or mail, or gear of war at all. And the ways of the
peace of that place are the best."
Then I was alone on the deck, and the tall figure with the long
white beard and hair was no longer before me. The chamber was
closed, even as we had left it, and there was neither sign nor
sound to tell me how that had been wrought.
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