cargo have you, friend Grim, and thereforeI am the more sure that you have store of money with you. Even flightfrom Hodulf would not prevent you from taking that wherewith to trade.So I must have it; and it rests with you whether we tear your ship tosplinters in hunting for your hiding place or not."
"I suppose there is no help for it, but I will say that the most of whatI have is not mine," said my father.
"Why, what matter? When one gives gold into the hands of a seafarer, onehas to reckon with such chances as this. You must needs hand it over."
So, as there was naught else to do, Grim brought out the jarl's heavybag, and gave it to the chief, who whistled to himself as he hefted it.
"Grim," he said, "for half this I would have let you go without sendinga man on board. What is this foolishness? You must have known that."
"The gold is not mine," my father answered; "it was my hope that youwould have been content with the cargo."
"Well, I have met with an honest man for once," the Viking said; and hecalled his men, and they cast off and left us.
But we were in no happy plight when he had gone away to the eastward onhis old course. Half our men were gone, for the wounded were of no use,and the loss of the queen weighed heavily on us. And before long itbegan to blow hard from the north, and we had to shorten sail beforethere was real need, lest it should be too much for us few presently, asit certainly would have been by the time that darkness fell, for thegale strengthened.
Then, added to all this, there was trouble in the cabin under the afterdeck, for since his mother was lost, Havelok had spoken no word. I hadbrought him down to my mother from the deck, and had left him with her,hoping that he did not know what had happened; but now he was in a highfever, and sorely ill. Perhaps he would have been so in any case, afterthe long days of Hodulf's cruelty, but he had borne them well. A childis apt, however, to give up, as it were, suddenly.
So, burdened with trouble, we drove before the gale, and the onlypleasant thing was to see how the good ship behaved in it, while atleast we were on our course all the time. Therefore, one could not saythat there was any danger; and but for these other things, none wouldhave thought much of wind or sea, which were no worse than we hadweathered many a time before. We had sea room, and no lee shore to fear,and the ship was stanch, and no sailor can ask for more than that.
CHAPTER V. STORM AND SHIPWRECK.
The gale held without much change through the night, and then withmorning shifted a few points to the westward, which was nothing tocomplain of. The sea rose, and a few rain squalls came up and passed;but they had no weight in them, and did not keep the waves down as asteady fall will. And all day long it was the same, and the ship fledever before it. There was no thought now of reaching any port we mightwish, but least of all did we think of making the Lindsey shore, whichlies open to the north and east. When the gale broke, we must findharbour where we could; and indeed; to my father at this time all portswere alike, as refuge from Hodulf. When darkness came again one of thewounded men died, and Havelok was yet ill in the after cabin, so that mymother was most anxious for him. The plunging ship was no place for asick child.
Now it was not possible for us to tell how far we had run since we hadparted from the Viking, and all we knew was that we had no shore to fearwith the wind as it was, and therefore nothing but patience was needed.But in the night came a sudden lull in the gale that told of a change athand, and in half an hour it was blowing harder than ever from thenortheast, and setting us down to the English coast fast, for we coulddo naught but run before such a wind. It thickened up also, and was verydark even until full sunrise, so that one could hardly tell when the sunwas above the sea's rim.
I crept from the fore cabin about this time, after trying in vain tosleep, and found the men sheltering under the break of the deck andlooking always to leeward. Two of them were at the steering oar with myfather, for Arngeir was worn out, and I had left him in the cabin,sleeping heavily in spite of the noise of waves and straining planking.Maybe he would have waked in a moment had that turmoil ceased.
It was of no use trying to speak to the men without shouting in theirears, and getting to windward to do that, moreover, and so I lookedround to see if there was any change coming. But all was grey overhead,and a grey wall of rain and flying drift from the wave tops was allround us, blotting out all things that were half a mile from us, ifthere were anything to be blotted out. It always seems as if there mustbe somewhat beyond a thickness of any sort at sea. But there was onething that I did notice, and that was that the sea was no longer grey,as it had been yesterday, but was browner against the cold sky, whilethe foam of the following wave crests was surely not so white as it hadbeen, and at this I wondered.
Then I crawled aft and went to my father and asked him what he thoughtof the wind and the chance of its dropping. He had had the lead goingfor long now.
"We are right off the Humber mouth, to judge by the colour of thewater," he told me, "or else off the Wash, which is more to the south. Icannot tell which rightly, for we have run far, and maybe faster than Iknow. If only one could see--"
There he stopped, and I knew enough to understand that we were in someperil unless a shift of wind came very soon, since the shore was underour lee now, if by good luck we were not carried straight into the greatriver itself. So for an hour or more I watched, and all the time itseemed that hope grew less, for the sea grew shorter, as if againsttide, and ever its colour was browner with the mud of the Trent and hersisters.
Presently, as I clung to the rail, there seemed to grow a new sound overand amid all those to which I had become used--as it were a lowroaring that swelled up in the lulls, and sank and rose again. And Iknew what it was, and held up my hand to my father, listening, and heheard also. It was the thunder of breakers on a sandy coast to leeward.
He put his whistle to his lips and called shrilly, and the men saw himif they could not hear, and sprang up, clawing aft through the waterthat flooded the waist along the rail.
"Breakers to leeward, men," he cried "we must wear ship, and then shallclear them. We shall be standing right into Humber after that, as I think."
Arngeir heard the men trampling, if not the whistle, and he was with usdirectly, and heard what was to be done.
"It is a chance if the yard stands it," he said, looking aloft.
"Ay, but we cannot chance going about in this sea, and we are too shortof men to lower and hoist again. Listen!"
Arngeir did so, and heard for the first time the growing anger of thesurf on the shore, and had no more doubt. We were then running with thewind on the port quarter, and it was useless to haul closer to the windon that tack, whereas if we could wear safely we should be leaving theshore at once by a little closer sailing.
"Ran is spreading her nets," said Arngeir, "but if all holds, she willhave no luck with her fishing." [6]
Then we manned the main sheet and the guys from the great yards, but wewere all too few for the task, which needed every man of the fifteenthat we had sailed with. There was the back stay to be set up afresh onthe weather quarter for the new tack also, and three men must see to that.
We watched my father's hand for the word, and steadily sheeted homeuntil all seemed to be going well. But the next moment there was a crashand a cry, and we were a mastless wreck, drifting helplessly. Maybe someflaw of wind took us as the head of the great sail went over, but itspower was too much for the men at guys and back stay, and they had thetackle torn through their hands. The mast snapped six feet above thedeck, smashing the gunwales as it fell forward and overboard, buthurting none of us.
Then a following sea or two broke over the stern, and I was washed fromthe poop, for I had been at the sheet, down to the deck, and there savedmyself among the fallen rigging, half drowned. One of the men was washedoverboard at the same time, but a bight of the rigging that was over theside caught him under the chin, and his mates hauled him on board againby the head, as it were. He was wont to make a jest of it afterward,saying that
he was not likely to be hanged twice, but he had a wry neckfrom that day forward.
No more seas came over us, for the wreck over the bows brought us headto wind, though we shipped a lot of water across the decks as she rolledin the sea. Then we rode to the drag of the fallen sail for a time, andit seemed quiet now that there was no noise of wind screaming in riggingabove us. But all the while the thunder of the breakers grew nearer andplainer.
I bided where I was, for the breath was knocked out of me for themoment. I saw my father lash the helm, and then he and the rest got thetwo axes that hung by the cabin door, and came forward with them. Themast was pounding our side in a way that would start the planking beforelong, and it must be cut adrift, and by that time I could join him.
When that was done, and it did not take long, we cleared the anchor andcable and let go, for it was time. The sound of the surf was drowningall else. But the
Havelok the Dane Page 10