and he hid
his face in his arms, and was quiet again.

Worn out when day broke was I, and again I ate and gave to Beorn,
and he would eat all his loaf, though I bade him spare it, for I
knew not how long yet we might be before we saw land. And that
seemed to change his mood, and he began to scowl at me, though he
dared say little, and so sat still in his place, glowering at me
evilly.

Presently came a whale, spouting near us, and that terrified him,
so that he cried to me to save him from it, as though I had power
on the seas more than had other men. But it soon went away, and he
forgot his terror, beginning to blame me for not having gained the
shore yet.

I could say nothing, for I knew not how far we had run; yet we had
come a long way, and I thought that surely we must have sailed as
swiftly as Lodbrok, for the sea had favoured us rather than given
trouble. Even now I thought the colour of the water changed a
little, and I began to think that we neared some land at last.

As the sun set, the wind shifted more to the westward, and I
thought a change was coming. It was very dark overhead until the
waning moon rose.

Now, soon after moonrise Beorn began to groan, in his sleep as I
thought; but presently he rose up, stiffly, from long sitting, and
I saw that his eyes were flashing, and his face working strangely
in the pale moonlight. I bade him lie down again, but he did not,
and then I saw that he was surely out of his mind through the
terror of the sea and the long nothingness of the voyage to which
he was all unused. Then he made for me with a shout, and I saw that
I must fight for my life. So I closed with him and dragged him down
to the bottom of the boat, and there we two struggled, till I
thought that the end was come.

The boat plunged and listed, and once was nearly over, but at that
new strength came to me, and at last I forced his shoulders under
the midship thwart, and held him there so that he could by no means
rise. Then all his fury went, and he became weak, so that I reached
out with one hand for the line and bound him easily, hand and foot.
I set him back in his place, and the water washed over his face as
he lay, for we had shipped a good deal in the lurches our struggle
caused. Then he was still, and as on the first night, seemed to
sleep, breathing very heavily.

So I left him bound, and bailed the water out. Then knew I how weak
I was. Yet I held on, steering from wave to wave as though