And who knoweth what thy wish may bring forth?"
Thereat was Hallblithe sore puzzled; but while he set himself to
consider what the old carle might mean, uprose the hale and how of
the mariners; they cast off the hawsers from the shore, ran out the
sweeps, and drave the ship through the haven-gates. It was a bright
sunny day; within, the green water was oily-smooth, without the
rippling waves danced merrily under a light breeze, and Hallblithe
deemed the wind to be fair; for the mariners shouted joyously and
made all sail on the ship; and she lay over and sped through the
waves, casting off the seas from her black bows. Soon were they
clear of those swart cliffs, and it was but a little afterwards that
the Isle of Ransom was grown deep blue behind them and far away.
CHAPTER IX: THEY COME TO THE LAND OF THE GLITTERING PLAIN
As in the hall, so in the ship, Hallblithe noted that the folk were
merry and of many words one with another, while to him no man cast a
word save the Grandfather. As to Hallblithe, though he wondered much
what all this betokened, and what the land was whereto he was
wending, he was no man to fear an unboded peril; and he said to
himself that whatever else betid, he should meet the Hostage on the
Glittering Plain; so his heart rose and he was of good cheer, and as
the Grandfather had foretold, he was a merry faring-fellow to him.
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