ighty short boards," he said. "She should surely
have headed over to the coast yet awhile. Would have fetched a bit
of a breeze off the land there, maybe."

Thorgils watched this vessel curiously, for there were things about
her which seemed to puzzle him. The men, too, were beginning to
talk of her and watch her. And presently I saw that our consort,
the Dane, had slackened her speed, so that there was a mile of
water between us astern.

"Oh ay," said Thorgils, as I spoke of this, "they mean to pick her
up when we have passed her. They can overhaul her as they like."

Now we drew near to the strange ship, and it seemed to Owen and me,
as we stood side by side on the after deck beside Thorgils at the
helm, that we saw here and there among the men on her deck the
sparkle of arms as she lifted and swayed to the waves. She was a
long black ship, not like the Dane at all, and her sail was three
cornered on a long tapering yard, quite unlike ours, which was
square. Thorgils said that she was a trader from the far south, a
foreigner, even from so far as Spain, though why she was here he
could not tell. Mostly such never came round the Land's End.

"She wants to speak with us," he said presently. "I suppose she has
lost herself in strange waters."

The vessel was right across our bows now, some half mile away, and
her tall sail was flapping in the wind as she hove to. Thorgils put
the helm down so as to pass to windward of her, and as he did so
the sail of the stranger filled again, and she headed as if waiting
to sail with us for a while. Now we could see that many of her
crew, which did not seem large, were armed, and I thought little of
that, seeing that there were Danes about. But Thorgils waxed
silent, and sent a man to the masthead suddenly, for some reason
which was not plain to me.

No sooner was the man there than he shouted somewhat in broad Norse
sea language, which made our skipper start and knit his brows.

"How many?" he asked.

"Like to herrings in a barrel.--More than I can tell," the masthead
man answered.

Then Thorgils turned to us.

"This is more than I can fully fathom," he said, leaning on the
helm a little, so that the ship edged up a trifle closer to the
wind steadily. "She has her weather gunwale packed with men, who
are hiding under it--armed men. On my word, it is well that Eric is
with us."

Owen and I looked at one another. If I had been alone, or with him
only, I think I should hav