for a whiff of peat
smoke hung round us and was gone so quickly that I thought it
almost fancy. But Dalfin had smelt it also.

"There is a fire alight on board," he said. "I smelt the smoke.
That means food, and someone on board after all."

With that he shouted, but there was no answer. It would have been a
relief to me if some ship's dog had flown out and barked at us; but
all was silent, and that was uncanny here in the open sea, and on
such a ship.

"Well," said Bertric, "crew or no, we must go on board. No use in
waiting."

He swung himself up from the boat over the high gunwale, and then
gave me a hand, and together we hauled up Dalfin, and so stood and
stared at all we saw in wonder.

Everything was in perfect trim, and the ship was fitted as if for a
long cruise. She had two handsome boats, with carven gunwales and
stem and stern posts set on their chocks side by side amidships,
with their sails and oars in them. Under the gunwales on either
board were lashed the ship's oars, and with them two carved gangway
planks which seemed never to have been used. Every line and rope's
end was coiled down snugly, and every trace of shore litter had
been cleared from the white decks as if she had been a week at
least at sea, though we knew, from her course, that she could not
be more than a few hours out from the Norway coast. We had guessed
that she might have sailed at dawn.

But we wondered not so much at the trim of the ship, though that
puzzled us; just aft of the mast, and set against its foot, was the
pile we had taken for deck cargo, and the like of it I had never
seen. There had been built of heavy pine timbers, whose ends butted
against either gunwale below, and rose to a ridge pole above, a
pent house, as it were, which stood at the ridge some six feet high
from the deck, and was about two fathoms long. Its end was closed
with timbers also, and against this end, and round, and partly over
the roof, had been piled fagots of brushwood, so that it was almost
covered. Either from haste, or else loosened by the movement of the
ship, one or two of these fagots had not found a place with the
rest, but lay on the deck by the boats. As if to keep the pile
steady, on either side had been set a handsomely carved sledge, and
on the pile at the end was a light wagon, also carved, and with
bright bronze fittings. The wheels had been taken off and set
inside it. Under the piles showed a barrel or two, which it was
plai