Weird Tales from Northern Seas | Page 4

the gale was ever on the increase; but, on the other hand, in order to
keep the boat free of the constantly heavier seas, he dare not lessen the

sail a bit more than he was absolutely obliged to do; but they found that
the scrap of sail they could carry gradually grew less and less. The sea
seethed so that it drove right into their faces, and Bernt and his next
eldest brother Anthony, who had hitherto helped his mother with the
sail-lines, had, at last, to hold in the yards, an expedient one only
resorts to when the boat cannot bear even the last clew--here the fifth.
The companion boat, which had disappeared in the meantime, now
suddenly ducked up alongside again, with precisely the same amount of
sail as Elias's boat; but he now began to feel that he didn't quite like the
look of the crew on board there. The two who stood and held in the
yards (he caught a glimpse of their pale faces beneath their sou'westers)
seemed to him, by the odd light of the shining foam, more like corpses
than men, nor did they speak a single word.
A little way off to larboard he again caught sight of the high white back
of a fresh roller coming through the dark, and he got ready betimes to
receive it. The boat was laid to with its prow turned aslant towards the
on-rushing wave, while the sail was made as large as possible, so as to
get up speed enough to cleave the heavy sea and sail out of it again. In
rushed the roller with a roar like a foss; again, for an instant, they lay
on their beam ends; but, when it was over, the wife no longer sat by the
sail ropes, nor did Anthony stand there any longer holding the
yards--they had both gone overboard.
This time also Elias fancied he heard the same hideous yell in the air;
but in the midst of it he plainly heard his wife anxiously calling him by
name. All that he said when he grasped the fact that she was washed
overboard, was, "In Jesus' Name!" His first and dearest wish was to
follow after her, but he felt at the same time that it became him to save
the rest of the freight he had on board, that is to say, Bernt and his other
two sons, one twelve, the other fourteen years old, who had been baling
out for a time, but had afterwards taken their places in the stern behind
him.
Bernt had now to look to the yards all alone, and the other two helped
as best they could. The rudder Elias durst not let slip, and he held it fast
with a hand of iron, which continuous exertion had long since made
insensible to feeling.
A moment afterwards the comrade boat ducked up again: it had
vanished for an instant as before. Now, too, he saw more of the heavy

man who sat in the stern there in the same place as himself. Out of his
back, just below his sou'wester (as he turned round it showed quite
plainly), projected an iron spike six inches long, which Elias had no
difficulty in recognising again. And now, as he calmly thought it all
over, he was quite clear about two things: one was that it was the
_Draug_[8] itself which was steering its half-boat close beside him, and
leading him to destruction; the other was that it was written in heaven
that he was to sail his last course that night. For he who sees the Draug
on the sea is a doomed man. He said nothing to the others, lest they
should lose heart, but in secret he commended his soul to God.
During the last hour or so he had been forced out of his proper course
by the storm; the air also had become dense with snow; and Elias knew
that he must wait till dawn before land could be sighted. Meanwhile he
sailed along much the same as before. Now and then the boys in the
stern complained that they were freezing; but, in the plight they were
now in, that couldn't be helped, and, besides, Elias had something else
to think about. A terrible longing for vengeance had come over him,
and, but for the necessity of saving the lives of his three lads, he would
have tried by a sudden turn to sink the accursed boat which kept
alongside of him the whole time as if to mock him; he now understood
its evil errand only too well. If the _Kvejtepig_[9] could reach the
Draug before, a knife or a gaff might surely do the same thing now, and
he felt that he would