The Hot Swamp | Page 4

blue-eyed, tall--you said she was tall, I think?"
"Yes--rather tall."
"Of course not quite so tall as yourself, say six feet or so, with a slight, feminine beard--no? you shake your head; well, smooth-faced and rosy, immense breadth of shoulders--ah! I have often pictured to myself that sister of yours--"
"Hilloa!" shouted Captain Arkal in a nautical tone that might almost have been styled modern British in its character.
It was an opportune interruption, for Dromas had been running on with his jesting remarks for the sole purpose of crushing down the feelings that almost unmanned him.
With few but fervently uttered words the final farewells were at last spoken. The oars were dipped; the vessel shot from the land, swept out upon the blue waves of the Aegean, the sail was hoisted, and thus began the long voyage to the almost unknown islands of the 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-rope, mate, and pull, men, pull, if you would save your liberty-- for these brutes have no mercy."
The sail was tightened up a few inches, and the vessel was put more directly before the wind. The way in which the slaves bent to the oars showed that the poor fellows fully understood the situation.
For a few minutes Captain Arkal watched the result in stern silence. Then, with an unwonted look and tone of bitterness, he said in a low voice--
"No--I thought as much. She sails faster than we do. Now, friend Bladud, you shall presently have a chance of proving whether your royal blood is better than that of other men."
To this remark the prince made no other reply than by a good-natured smile as he took up the bronze helmet which lay beside his sword on the thwart and placed it on his head.
Captain Arkal regarded him with a sort of grim satisfaction as he followed up the action by buckling on his sword.
The sword in question was noteworthy. It was a single-handed weapon of iron, made in Egypt, to suit the size and strength of its owner, and was large enough to have served as a two-handed sword for most men.
"You can throw a javelin, no doubt?" asked the captain, as he watched the young man's leisurely preparations for the expected combat.
"Yes, I have practised throwing the spear