At the call Thorarna appeared from the kitchen through the rear doorway carrying with both hands a great bowl high before her. Down the hall she came, her face lit with a triumphant smile, magnificent and stately. Before the High Seat she knelt and offered the bowl to Thorkell. The fighters cheered again. As Thorarna held up the bowl, Thorkell, to his horror, felt his right hand grasp the sword-hilt with a grip he could not loosen, felt the sword raise itself and his arm till the blade swung high above Thorarna, felt the magic of the sword drag down his arm in a deadly sweep, felt and saw the blow descend, felt and saw the blade shear through Thorarna’s left shoulder, shoulder-blade, collar-bone and ribs, cleaving her to the very heart. She crumpled in a horrid welter of spilt mead, gushing blood, disordered raiment and huddled flesh. The onlookers stood, frozen mute. Into the hall rushed Thordis and Thorgerd, screaming: “Do not drink! The mead is poisoned! Do not drink! The mead is poisoned!” At sight of the High Seat, Thorkell on it and what lay before him, Thordis collapsed in a faint. Thorgerd was at once absorbed in tending her cousin. Thorstein shouted for his thralls. “Ref! Karli! Mar! Odd! Remove that carrion! Cleanse the dais!” And, when his orders had been obeyed and the dais and hall were again seemly, he called once more: “Mead for the hero!” Thordis, now restored, though tottering, her golden-haired, pink-cheeked, blue-eyed loveliness amazing even in her confusion, herself carried to Thorkell a horn. He took it, quaffed it as he sat and handed it back to her. Then Thorstein shouted: “Mead for all of us, and more mead for the hero!” Maid servants flocked in with bowls, horns and goblets and behind them thralls with pails of mead to replenish those drained. All drank, Thorkell too, a second horn offered him by Thordis. From her knees he raised her and made her stand beside the High Seat. Then Thorstein shouted: “Hail the hero!” Whereupon all the warriors cheered Thorkell until they were hoarse. Into the ensuing silence Thorstein spoke clearly and gravely: “To-morrow we shall revel in honor of our deliverance, victory and safety. And the banquet shall be the wedding feast of my niece Thordis and of her bridegroom, my cousin, Thorkell Vilgerdson of Rogaland in Norway, our hero!” 1924 THE PICTURE PUZZLE THE PICTURE PUZZLE I