"That is no matter. We are used to keeping watch."

"Ay. How is that hurt friend of yours after the voyage?"

"Well as one could expect," answered Evan, "He says he has slept
almost all the way. He is comfortable where he is."

They went aft, and soon I heard the princess speaking with them.
Then the well-known click and clash of armed men marching in order
came to me, as the chief sent a guard for his daughter. It was
terrible to hear the voices of honest men so close to me and to be
helpless, and I worked at the rope feverishly.

I heard the princess and her party leave the ship, and almost as
the last footstep left the deck one strand of the cord went. I
worked harder yet, with a great hope on me.

"Presently the Norsemen will be full of Howel's mead," I heard Evan
say to one of his men. "Then we will get ashore and leave swiftly.
I think we need not stay to pay Thorgils for the voyage."

"Let us tell some of the shore men to bide here to help us," said
the other--"we have the Saxon to carry."

"That is a good thought."

They clattered over the plank ashore, and another strand of the
rope went at that time. I thought it was but one of another turn of
the line, however. Five minutes more of painful sawing and