Lo! it seemed to me as though one were calling me back from the depths of sleep. With trouble I opened my eyes only to shut them again because of the glare of the light. Then after a while I sat up, which gave me pain, for I felt as if I had been beaten all over, and looked once more. Above me shone the sun in a sky of deepest blue; before me was the sea almost calm, while around were rocks and sand, among which crawled great reptiles that I knew for turtles, as I had seen many of them in our wanderings. Moreover, kneeling at my side, with the sword that he had taken from the body of Deleroy still strapped about him, was Kari, who bled from some wound and was almost white with encrusted salt, but otherwise seemed unharmed. I stared at him, unable to open my mouth from amazement, so it was he who spoke the first, saying, in a voice that had a note of triumph in it:
“Did I not tell you that the gods were with us? Where is your faith, O White Man! Look! They have brought me back to the land of which I am Prince.”
Now there was that in Kari’s tone which in my weak state angered me. Why did he scold me about faith? Why did he address me as “White Man” instead of “Master”? Was it because he had reached a country where he was great and I was nothing? I supposed so, and answered;
“And are these your subjects, O noble Kari?” and I pointed to the crawling turtles. “And is this the rich and wondrous land where gold and silver are as mud?” and I pointed to the barren rocks and sand around.
He smiled at my jest, and answered more humbly:
“Nay, Master, yonder is my land.”
Then I looked, following his glance, and saw many leagues way across the water two snowclad peaks rising above a bank of clouds.
“I know those mountains,” he went on; “without doubt they are one of the gateways of my land.”
“Then we might as well be in London for all the hope we have of passing that gate, Kari. But tell me what has chanced.”
“This, I think. A very great wave caught us and threw us right over those rocks on to the shore. Look—there is the balsa,” and he pointed to a broken heap of reeds and pierced skins.