A Sea Queens Sailing | Page 6

taught them caution.
"There are thirty of us on board, mind you," the man who set us free
said, as he gathered the loose cords and went his way. "Better join us
offhand, and make the best of the business."
"Good advice that, maybe," said Dalfin, stretching himself. "Pass along
yon ale pot. I have a mighty thirst on me."
"That is better," said the man, and laughed.
I heard him tell another that the Irishman would come round first; but
Dalfin's foot had warned me that he spoke in no earnest. Whether my
friend had any plan in his mind I could not say, but at all events there
was no use in making our bondage worse than it might be by
sullenness.
It was good to be free from the lashings that had galled us so sorely, if
we were still captives indeed, and had no mind to pass from the
cramped cabin, if one may call the forepeak so much, to the deck where
the foemen sat and made merry with the stores they had taken from us.
The wind was steady and light, and they had naught to do but rest and
eat their supper. Asbiorn steered, and was alone on the after deck. The

two other ships were not to be seen, and I suppose that they outsailed
ours, for she had never been of the swiftest, though staunch and
seaworthy in any weather. We were heading due north as if we would
make the Faroe Islands, leaving the Orkneys to the starboard.
I wondered if Heidrek had his lair in that far-off spot, whence we
should have not the slightest chance of escape in the days to come; but
I could say nothing to my comrades. Men of the crew sat just outside
the low doorway, with their backs against the bulkhead, as if set there
to overhear what we might say.
I looked among them for those two men of ours who had been ready to
join Heidrek as their one chance of life, but I could not see them.
Perhaps this was no wonder, as it is likely that they were drafted to the
other ships in order to keep them apart from us. It was certainly the
safest thing to do.
Asbiorn himself seemed to have some thought of this sort with regard
to us seven presently. Before sunset, he called some of the men and
bade them bring Dalfin and myself and shut us into the after cabin,
under his own feet, as he sat at the steering oar. Two of my men were
to be left in the fore peak, for they were unhurt and could be shut in
safely, while the other three were set amidships, with men of the crew
round them. These three had some slight hurts, and a man set about
caring for them, roughly but skilfully enough.
But what I chiefly noticed as we were led aft, was that the ale was
passing freely, and, as I should have thought, too often for good
seamanship. That, however, was not my business, if it did seem to
explain why Asbiorn separated us. Seven desperate men might do
much among a helpless crowd, once they had snatched the arms they
could reach from those who had forgotten to guard them.
The young chief paid no heed to us as we passed into the darkness of
the low cabin. The door was closed and barred after us, and we were
left to our own devices, though in a few minutes some man on the after
deck took off the little square hatch cover which let the light into the
place. It was half full of plunder of all sorts, and there was barely room,
if soft stowage, for us.
"Well," I said to Dalfin, "if we can sleep, let us do so. I know that every
word we speak can be heard on deck."
Whereon he answered me in Erse, and I could understand him well, for

the old tongues of Scot of Ireland and Scot of Caithness are the same, if
ages have wrought some changes in the way of speaking them here and
there.
"Let these Danes make what they can of that," he said. "It will take a
man born to the Gaelic to catch aught of it through yon hole, if he
thinks he understands it in the open."
So in the Erse we spoke for a little while, and it was a hopeless talk at
best. Only we agreed that we would stand by one another through
whatever might come, and that the first chance of escape was to be
taken, be it what it might.
All the while that we talked thus the noise of the men who drank grew
wilder and more