Farewell"!--he
drew his dagger, and as the green of the surf curved over him I saw it
go under his shoulder that he had bared, and when the green of the wave
had changed to the retreating, and whispering spume again, there was
only something dark in the wash of the water. Then we three others left
that place and staggered on over the sucking sands. There was a headland
before us, from which great fragments of rock had fallen and blocked the
beach, and we could hear the sea dashing and roaring and moaning among
the hollows, and see the great waves strike and leap up and scatter in
sunlit spray. When we saw this bar across our path our hopes sank low,
and we hurried that we might die like men or perchance get over it, and
ever as we followed the curve of the beach the sputter of cross-bow
bolts came from the sand behind us, and twice long arrows whizzed from
my breastplate and glittered into the sea. At last we came to the rocks.
I went first, climbing, my sword in my hand as a staff. We fell over the
great blocks of dripping black, and we slimed our hands and armour on
the seaweed that lifted with every wave; our clothes were heavy with
water, and the wounded man who leant on my shoulder groaned as I
hoisted him up and down. At last we gained the top of the largest rock,
the outermost black fragment on which the great waves rent themselves. I
knew we must not linger, and sliding down the side with my other
companion, I turned for the wounded man, but he sat upon the rock his
face drawn all sideways with pain, for he had raised his helmet for
breath, and there was a cross-bow bolt sticking firmly out from one of
his eyes. One glance was all; then the world was a green fairyland with
rushing music and the noise of mighty crowds; then a soft rolling as in
tons of fleece, and then the air again, and sunlight.

The rock was bare. We staggered up, and crawling over stones like
children before they have learned to walk, came at last to the sands
again, the seaweed hanging from our shoulders and a weight as of leaden
anchors driving us down.

We pressed the water from our eyes and turned and looked at each other,
and then turned to the beach again; and gave a great shout, for our
ship lay high on the sand, and we could see the heads of our men over
the bulwark already watching us; then an arm waved, and down the gale
came a fine sound of welcome in our own language. Heavy as we were we
could not run, but we stumbled forward as