THE DENSCHMAN'S HAD. i6i 



and wondered that even the Denschman's tough and 

 giant frame had so long withstood the exposure and 

 starvation. 



A third time the islanders sought the rocks of 

 riiibersgerdie and saw the pirate chief as before. Then 

 they began to fear, and to say that he must be allied 

 to potent powers of evil ; for how, otherwise, could he 

 have survived there so long ? The interior of the 

 hellyer could be seen from a little distance : no food or 

 clothing had been saved from the wreck to be secreted 

 there. The prisoner was always seen sitting on the 

 cold bare ledge where, he had been first discovered, 

 and the people were satisfied that the cave held no 

 means of sustenance. 



Day by day for a whole fortnight boats were guided 

 to Fliibersgerdie, and men gazed in awe, but did not 

 venture to molest the Denschman, who merely returned 

 their stare with haughty glances, and never deigned to 

 bespeak their compassion. Dread of the supernatural 

 added its paralysing effects to the terror which the 

 viking's fame had implanted, and there was not a man 

 found brave enough to attack the Denschman in his 

 "had." 



Then heaviness fell on the men's spirits, for wives 

 and mothers upbraided them as cowards ; their little 

 ones shrieked and hid their faces when it was told that 

 the bugbear of their dreams was making his " had " in 

 an Unst hellyer ; and at last, driven by shame and a 

 remnant of manly courage, the islanders determined on 

 attacking their enemy. They would discover if he 



