"Stem on it must be, and take the chances," said my comrade. "It does seem as if the water were deep up to the beach, and we may not fare so badly. Well, there is one good point about these gifts which Gerda has given us, and that is that we shall have withal to buy hospitality. There are folk on the island."
"I saw a wisp of smoke a while ago," I said; "but I took it that it was on the mainland. There is no sign of a house."
"That may lie in some hollow out of the wind," he said. "I am sure of its being here."
Then I said that if we were to get on shore safely, which by the look of the beach as we lifted on the waves seemed possible, it might be better that we were armed.
"Aye, and if not, and we are to be drowned, it were better," he said grimly. "One would die as a warrior, anywise."
Now, all this while Dalfin sat with Gerda under the shelter of the boats forward, having stayed there to watch the water in the hold after we had tried to weather the island. Now and again Dalfin rose up and slipped into the bilge and baled fiercely, while Gerda watched the shore and the green hills, which looked so steady above the tumbling seas, wistfully.
I went to them and told them that we must needs face the end of the voyage in an hour or so, and that we would arm ourselves in case the shore folk gave trouble.
"They will do no harm," he said; "but it may be as well."
"One cannot be too sure of that," I answered; but saying no more, as I would not alarm Gerda with talk of wreckers.
"Bad for them if they do," he said. "We will not leave one alive to talk of it."