it of the Sea come to
earth, such a spirit as had never been dreamed of even by the wizards.

Thus then did Hubert of Hastings become a god among those simple people,
who had never before so much as heard of a white man, or seen armour or
a sword of steel.

CHAPTER II

THE ROCKY ISLE

For another week or more I remained upon the _Blanche_ waiting till
my full strength returned, also because Kari said I must do so. When
I asked him why, he replied for the reason that he wished news of my
coming to spread far and wide throughout the land from one tribe to
another, which it would do with great swiftness, flying, as he put it,
like a bird. Meanwhile, every day I sat upon the poop in the armour for
an hour or more, and both these people and others from afar came to look
at me, bringing me presents in such quantity that we knew not what to do
with them. Indeed, they built an altar and sacrificed wild creatures to
me, and birds, burning them with fire. Both those that I had seen and
the other folk from a long way off made this offering.

At last one night, when, having eaten, Kari and I were seated together
in the moonshine before we slept, I turned on him suddenly, hoping thus
to surprise the truth out of his secret heart, and said:

"What is your plan, Kari? For, know, I weary of this life."

"I was waiting for the Master to ask that question," he replied with
his gentle smile. (Again, I give not the very words he spoke in his bad
English, but the substance of them.) "Now will the Master be pleased to
listen? As I have told the Master, I believe that the gods, his God and
my God, have brought me back to that part of the world which is unknown
to the Master, where I was born. I believed this from the first hour
that my eyes opened on it after our swoon, for I knew the trees and
the flowers and the smell of the earth, and saw that the stars in the
heavens stood where I used to see them. When I went ashore and mingled
with the natives, I discovered that this belief was right, since I could
understand something of their talk and they could understand something
of mine. Moreover, among them was a man who came from far away, who said
that he had seen me in past years, wandering like one mad, only that
this man whom he had seen wore the image of a certain god about his
neck, whose name was too high for him to mention. Then I opened my robe
and showed him that which I wear about my neck, and he fell down and
worshipp