Shef exploded with feigned rage, swung a blow at the reeve’s head, whipped a dirk from its scabbard. The reeve turned away, shouting orders at the little knot of men who had collected at a few yards’ distance. Slowly men began to push beached fishing boats towards the tide, to step masts, haul sailcloth from sheds. In a tight huddle the Vikings pressed down to the water’s edge, hustling their captives. Fifty yards away, five hundred English riders pressed forward, ready to charge sooner than see the hostages taken off, held back by the bright weapons waving over tonsured heads.

“Keep them back,” snapped Shef to the abbot. “I’ll let half your men go when we board. You and the rest go in a dinghy once we’re afloat.”

“I suppose you realize this means we lose the horses,” said Guthmund gloomily.

“You stole them in the first place. You can steal some more.”

“So we pulled into the mouth of the Humber under oars just at dusk, beached for the night when we were sure no one could see us, then rowed upriver in the morning to meet the rest of you. With the take.”

“How much is it?” asked Brand, sitting with the other members of the impromptu council.

“I’ve weighed it out,” said Thorvin. “Altar-plate, candlesticks, those little boxes the Christians keep saints’ finger-bones in, box for the holy wafers, those things for burning incense, some coins—a lot of coins. I thought monks weren’t supposed to have property of their own, but Guthmund says they all had purses if you shook them hard enough. Well, after what he gave the fishermen we still have ninety-two pounds weight of silver.

“Better than that is the gold. The crown you took off the Christ-image was pure gold, and heavy. So was some of the plate. That’s another fourteen pounds. And we reckon gold as outvaluing silver eight for one. So that counts as eight stone of silver: a hundredweight to add to your ninety-two pounds.”

“Two hundred pounds, all told,” said Brand thoughtfully. “We will have to divide it all between crews and let the crews make their own division.”

“No,” said Shef.

“You say that a lot these days,” Brand said.

“That is because I know what to do—others don’t. The money is not to be divided. It is the war chest of the army. That was why I went for it. If we divide it up everyone will be a little richer. I want to use it so that everyone becomes a lot richer.”

“If it’s put like that,” said Thorvin, “I think the army will accept it. You got it. You have a right to say how you think it should be used. But how are we all going to get a lot richer?”