he man jerked his thumb over his shoulder, and lifted his voice
and shouted "Ho Thorgils, here is the Welsh chapman."

I saw the head of my friend rise from under the gunwale amidships,
and when he saw who was waiting he also came ashore. Evan met him
at the gangway.

"I thought you were not coming, master chapman," he said. "A little
later and you had lost your voyage. Tide waits for no man, and
Thorgils sails with the tide he waits. Therefore Thorgils waits for
no man."

Just for a moment a thought came to me that Thorgils was in league
with the outlaws, and that was hard. But Evan's next words told me
that in this I was wrong. It would seem that the taking of his
ill-gotten goods across the channel had been planned by Evan before
he fell in with me, and maybe that already made plan was the saving
of my life, by putting the thought of an easy way to dispose of me
to some profit into the outlaw's head.

"I had been here earlier," he said, "but for a mischance to my
friend here. I want to take him with me, if you will suffer it."

He pointed to me as he spoke, and Thorgils turned and looked at me
idly. I was some twenty yards from him as I lay, and I tried to cry
out to him as his eyes fell on me, but I could only fetch a sort of
groan, and I could not move at all.

"He seems pretty bad," said Thorgils, when he heard me. "What is
amiss with him? I can have no fevers or aught of that sort aboard,
with the young lady as passenger, moreover."

"There is nothing of that," Evan answered hastily. "It is but the
doing of a fall from his horse. The beast rolled on him, and he has
a broken thigh, slipped shoulder, and broken jaw, so that it will
be long before he is fit for aught again, as I fear. Now he wants
to get back to his wife and children at Lanphey, hard by Pembroke,
and our leech said that he would take no harm from the voyage. It
is calm enough, and not so cold but that we may hap him up against
it. If I may take him, I will pay well for his passage."

Thorgils looked at me again for a moment.

"Well," he said, "if that is all, I do not mind. It would be better
if the after cabin was empty, but of course the princess has that.
There is room for him to be stowed comfortably enough under the
fore deck with your bales, however, and it will be warm there. Ay,
we will take the poor soul home, for his mind will be easier, and
that will help his healing. It is ill to be laid up in a strange
land. Get him on board