The man driving the old sled was an ice harvester in the mountains. He lived in a forest about eight miles away and used the sled to deliver ice around the kingdom.
He had driven into the mountains that night to drop off a shipment of ice. Now he was on his way back. As he pulled away from the mountain, he noticed a red pick-up sled follow him out. A few minutes later the sled was still behind him.
"I guess we're going in the same direction," he thought. He began to watch the sled in his mirror. When he made his reindeer go faster, the driver of the sled made his go faster. When he passed a tree, so did he.
Then he turned on his high lantern beams, flooding his sled with light. He left them on for almost a minute. "He probably wants to pass me," the ice harvester thought. But he was becoming uneasy.
Usually he drove home over a back road in the forest. Not too many people went that way. But when he turned onto that road, so did the sled.
"I've got to get away from him," he thought and he made his reindeer go faster. Then the driver turned his high lantern beams on again. After a minute, he turned them off. Then he turned them on again and off again.
The ice harvester sped his reindeer up even more, but the driver stayed right behind him. Then he turned his lanterns on again.
Once more his sled was ablaze with light. "What is he doing?" he wondered. "What does he want?" Then the lanterns turned off again. But a minute later he had them on again, and he left them on.
At last the ice harvester pulled up to the castle, and the sled driver pulled in right behind him. The ice harvester jumped from his sled and ran into the castle.
"Call the guards!" he screamed at the queen. Outside the castle he could see the driver of the other sled. He had a crossbow in his hand.
When the castle guards arrived, they started to arrest him, but he pointed to the ice harvester's sleigh. "Hoo-hoo, you don't want me," he said. "You want him, ja."
Crouched behind the driver's seat, there was a troll with a knife.
As the driver of the sleigh explained it, the troll slipped into the ice harvester's sleigh just before he left the mountain. He saw it happen, but there was no way he could stop it. He thought about getting the guards himself, but he was afraid to leave the ice harvester alone. So he followed his sled.
Each time the love expert in the back seat reached up to overpower him, the driver of the sled turned on his high lantern beams. Then the troll dropped down, afraid that someone might see him.