"So you saw him?" said Alfred.
"I knew he went to the ships yesterday after Godred came back," he added, laughing.
"He read my letter for me, and after that I had a good deal of talk with him," I said.
"Then," said Sigehelm, "you have spoken with the best man in all our land."
Now the king said that he would let the question of the runes, for which he thanked me, stand over thus; and then he asked me to sit down and hear what he would ask me to do for him, if I had no plans already made for myself.
I said that I had nothing so certainly planned but that I and my men would gladly serve him.
"Then," he said, "I would ask you to winter with me, and set my ships in order. There will be work for you and all your men, for you shall give them such command in any ship of mine as you know the
