he far North-West.

CHAPTER TWO.

TEMPORARY DELAY THROUGH ELEMENTS AND PIRATES.

But it is not our purpose to inflict the entire log of that voyage on
our reader, adventurous though the voyage was. Matter of much greater
importance claims our regard. Still it would be unjust to our voyagers
to pass it over in absolute silence.

At the very commencement of it, there occurred one of those incidents to
which all voyagers are more or less subject. A gale arose the very
evening of the day on which they left port, which all but swamped the
little vessel, and the violence of the wind was so great that their huge
sail was split from top to bottom. In spite of the darkness and the
confusion that ensued, Captain Arkal, by his prompt action and skilful
management, saved the vessel from immediate destruction. Fortunately
the gale did not last long, and, during the calm that followed, the rent
was repaired and the sail re-set.

Then occurred another incident that threatened to cut short the voyage
even more disastrously than by swamping.

The sea over which they steered swarmed with pirates at the time we
write of, as it continued to swarm during many centuries after.
Merchantmen, fully aware of the fact, were in those days also men of
war. They went forth on their voyages fully armed with sword, javelin,
and shield, as well as with the simple artillery of the period--bows and
arrows, slings and stones.

On the afternoon of the day that followed the gale, the vessel--which
her captain and owner had named the _Penelope_ in honour of his wife--
was running before a light breeze, along the coast of one of the islands
with which that sea is studded.

Bladud and some of the crew were listening at the time to an account
given by a small seaman named Maikar, of a recent adventure on the sea,
when a galley about as large as their own was seen to shoot suddenly
from the mouth of a cavern in the cliffs in which it had lain concealed.
It was double-banked and full of armed men, and was rowed in such a way
as to cut in advance of the _Penelope_. The vigour with which the oars
were plied, and the rapidity with which the sail was run up, left no
doubt as to the nature of the craft or the intentions of those who
manned it.

"The rascals!" growled Arkal with a dark frown, "I more than half
expected to find them here."

"Pirates, I suppose?" said Bladud.

"Ay--and not much chance of escaping them. Give another haul on the
sail