ckened faces from the sparks with their shields,
and they too found their posts at once. A dozen came on the after
deck with bows, and lined the shoreward gunwale.

Hardly had they come on board when the rest came in a rush,
Thorleif being last of all. Behind them the wharf was empty, save
for one man whom an arrow out of the smoke caught up and smote.
Thorleif heard him fall, though in the turmoil of trampling feet I
could not; and he turned back to him, and lifted him as if he had
been a child, and bore him on board. Then the gang planks rattled
in, and the lines were cast off, and the ship began to move.

Still the wharf was empty. I think the Saxons had been driven back
for a while, and that they did not yet know, so thick was the smoke
of the burning, that the barrier at the end of the lane was
unguarded.

Now there were five yards between ship and shore--then ten--then
twenty. The oars took the water, and she headed for sea. Out of the
smoke came my people, and ran yelling across the open, and I seemed
to wake up.

"Thrond," I cried, "I take back my promise. Let me go."

"Eh!" he said, looking round.

I was then with my hands on the gunwale, in the act of leaping
overboard, when he reached round and held me fast.

"Steady, fool!" he said; "you will have a dozen arrows through you.

"Here, hold him," he said sharply.

And the men fell on me, binding me deftly with a few turns of a
line, and then troubling themselves no more about me.

Next moment there was a sharp hiss, and an arrow from the shore
stuck in the deck close to me, and another chipped the tail of the
dragon and glanced into the sea. I mind noting that many another
such splinter had been taken from that stern post, and presently
saw--for I lay on my back, helpless--that a flint arrowhead still
showed itself through a new coat of paint. It was too deeply bedded
to be cut out, or else it was token of some honourable fight. It at
least had come from forward, whereas I thought that most of the
chips had come from astern, as this new one did. It is strange what
little things one will notice when at one's wits' end.

The shouts ashore grew more faint, and at last were past. The crew
were very silent, but the oars swung steadily, and at last Thorleif
came from the midship gangway and saw me. The weary men laid in the
oars at that moment, and threw themselves down to rest.

"Ho, Saxon!" he said, "on my word I had forgotten you. Who had you
tied