ich we might follow him. No
man knew the Thames-mouth channels better than our pilot, Kenulf
the sea crafty, as we called him.

Then it fell dead calm, quite suddenly, and we drifted, with the
sail flapping against the mast idly, for half an hour or so. Then
fell on us, without warning, such a fierce gale as I had never
before seen, blowing from north and west, with rain and bright
lightning, and it raised in five minutes a sea that broke over us
again and again as Thormod brought the ship head to wind.

Then I lost sight of Kenulf's lights, and as I clung to the rail,
my mind was torn with longing to be back in my own ship in this
danger, though I knew that Kenulf needed me not, and that, had I
been there, it would but have been to obey him with the rest of our
crew; yet I think that any man who loves his ship will know what I
felt.

And of the fury and darkness of that night I will say little. This
is what comes into my mind of all that happened--aye, and at night,
when the wind roars round the house, I see it all again, waking in
my dreams as I call to Kenulf. One flash of lightning showed me my
ship dismasted and helpless, drifting broadside on to a sand over
which the waves broke white and angry, and when the next flash
came--she was gone!

Then I cried out on my folly in leaving her, and out of the
blackness beside me as I clung to the gunwale, straining my eyes
against the spray, Halfden's voice came, crying, as he gripped my
arm:

"By Odin--it is well that I kept you here!"

And Thormod from the helm shouted to his men to stand by the sheet,
and the helm went down, and the ship drove through the seas that
broke clean over her as he saw the danger in time to stand away
from it, heading her as free as he dared.

Naught of this I heeded, for I could think but of the stout sailor
men with whom I had been brought up, and of whom I knew only too
surely that I should see them not again. And for them I tried to
pray, for it was all that I could do, and it seemed so little--yet
who knows what help may come therefrom?

Now the longship fought alone with the storm. Hard was the fight,
but I, who was willing to die with my own people who had gone
before my eyes, cared nothing for whether we won through the gale
or not. But Thormod called to me, bidding me pilot them as best I
might, and so I was taken a little from my thoughts. Yet can I take
no praise to myself that, when the gale slackened, we were safe and
b