them. We forgot the other ship in that
sight, as we looked in vain for some gap in the long wall which
stretched across our course. Only in one place, right ahead, the
breakers seemed nearer, and as if there might be shelving shore on
which they ran, rather than shattering cliffs on which they beat.
And presently we knew that between us and the shore lay an island,
low and long, rising to a green hill toward the mainland, but
seeming to end to the seaward in a beach which might have less
dangers for us than the foot of the cliffs beyond. So far as we
could make out from the deck, the strait between this island and
the mainland might be two miles wide, or a little less.

"If only we could get under the lee of that island we were safe,"
said Bertric to me. "It would be calm enough to anchor."

"We can but try it," I answered.

And with that we luffed a little, getting the island on our port
bow, but it was of no use. The unhandy canvas set us to leeward,
and, moreover, the water gained quickly as the strained upper
planking was hove down with the new list of the ship. I went to the
open space amidships whence we baled, and watched for a few
minutes, and saw that we could do nothing but run, unless the other
tack would serve us.

That we tried, but now we were too far from the eastern end of the
island, and it was hopeless to try to escape from the breakers.

"Stem on it must be, and take the chances," said my comrade. "It
does seem as if the water were deep up to the beach, and we may not
fare so badly. Well, there is one good point about these gifts
which Gerda has given us, and that is that we shall have withal to
buy hospitality. There are folk on the island."

"I saw a wisp of smoke a while ago," I said; "but I took it that it
was on the mainland. There is no sign of a house."

"That may lie in some hollow out of the wind," he said. "I am sure
of its being here."

Then I said that if we were to get on shore safely, which by the
look of the beach as we lifted on the waves seemed possible, it
might be better that we were armed.

"Aye, and if not, and we are to be drowned, it were better," he
said grimly. "One would die as a warrior, anywise."

Now, all this while Dalfin sat with Gerda under the shelter of the
boats forward, having stayed there to watch the water in the hold
after we had tried to weather the island. Now and again Dalfin rose
up and slipped into the bilge and baled fiercely, while Gerda
wat