The other men shrank from me, and I went through them easily, and
so reached the shoreward gunwale. There I was stayed, for Evan had
never ceased to cry to his fellows to stop me, and there was a row
of ready swords waiting for me. And there were more men coming down
the path, Welshmen as I could see by their arms, and by their white
tunics which glimmered in the moonlight. So that was closed to me,
and it seemed that here I must fight my last fight.

Then as I could not go over the side I went to the high stern and
leapt on it, half hoping that the men on shore might not be quick
enough to stay me from a leap thence, but they were there alongside
before me. Evan was up now, and cheering on the men on deck to
attack me, but not seeming to care to lead them. They gathered
together and came aft to me slowly, planning, as it would seem, how
best to attack me, for the steering deck on which I was raised me
four feet or so above them. The men on shore could not reach me at
all unless I got too near the gunwale, when some of them who had
spears might easily end me.

Something alongside the ship caught my eyes, and I glanced at it
with a thought that here might be fresh foes. But it was only the
little boat that belonged to the ship. The wind had caught her, and
was drifting her at the length of her painter as if she wanted to
cross the cove to its far side. Perhaps the men saw that my eyes
were not on them for that moment, for they made a rush from the
deck to climb the steering platform.

Then I had a good fight for a few minutes, until I swept them back
to their place. Two had won to the deck beside me, and there they
stayed. Now I had a hope that the men on shore would come round to