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."