Then she fled forward, and something held us back from so much as helping her to cross that barrier. We knew that she was near to breaking down, and no wonder.
There fell an uneasy silence on us when she was within the shelter of the awning and its folds closed after her. Dalfin broke it at last.
"Well," he said, "I suppose that you two seamen know which way you are steering in the fog--but it passes me to know how."
Bertric and I laughed, and were glad of the excuse to do so. We told him that we steered by the wind, which had not changed. But now we had only one course before us. We must needs head south and try to make the Shetlands. Eastward we might not sail for fear of Heidrek, and westward lay the open ocean, Still, we held on for half an hour, and then, still shrouded in the white folds of the fog, headed south as nearly as we might judge.
In an hour the wind fell. The fog darkened round us as the sun wore to the westward, and the sea went down until only the long ocean swell was left, lifting the ship easily and slowly without breaking round her. There was naught to be done; but, at least Heidrek could not find us.
"There may be days to come like this," Bertric said, with a sort of groan. "What is to be planned for him who lies yonder?"
Now, I told them what Gerda had said to me, and I could see that Bertric was relieved to hear her thought of a sea burial.
"I had thought of the same," he said at once. "It is not fitting that here the old warrior should be drifted to and fro, well nigh at the mercy of the wind, with the chances of a lee shore or of folk who make prey of hapless seafarers presently. A sea burial such as many a good man of our kin has found will be best. I could ask no more for myself."
"And what of the treasure?" I asked. "Shall that go with him?"
"It is Gerda's, and she must say," he answered. "Yet she will need it."