“Captains of the ships of all the world, I give you greeting. You wait to hear why I have called you from the seas. Hearken then to my word. A belfry have I built, the fairest belfry which stands beneath the sun, and I fain would lodge in it the fairest and noblest bell in all the world. Find me this bell, O captains of the ships! Go ye to all nations, and speed through all the seas.
“He who finds the bell shall be given a mighty treasure, and be crowned with glory and honor.”
Thus having said, the King of the South led the captains of the ships to a great feast which he had prepared for them, and there they made merry till the closing of the day.
Now, when the sun had set and the city, the still harbor, and the ships were bathed in a gentle golden light, Altair descended the winding marble stair to the pavilion at which his ship’s boat lay awaiting his return. Now it came to pass that, as the young captain approached the end of the steps, he saw standing by a marble pillar there an old bent fisher-wife with a young fisher-maiden at her side. And, because it seemed to Altair that they were fain to speak to him, yet a little afraid, the young captain paused at the pillar and asked the fisherfolk if some misfortune had come upon them.
“Good Sir Captain,” replied the maid, “we are fisherfolk of the Perilous Isles who would fain return to our homes again. In the springtide of the year, while my mother and I were out amid the nets in our little boat, a storm arose which swept us out to sea. For two bitter days and nights we fled before the gale, but on the third morn a great ship chanced to espy us and, rescuing us from the waves, brought us to this realm. Long have we sought a way to return into our own land. You find us here because of our hope that one of the ships of the world might be sailing by the Isles. But though we have asked those who passed before, there was never a one who could help us on our way.”
And the old fisher-wife shook her head slowly and sadly, whilst the maid stood still and said no more. The golden light was fading now from the city, the still harbor, and the ships. Even the belfry tower stood dark, its empty bell-chamber outlined against the sky. Presently the great blue light at the harbor mouth awoke in its stately tower, and a sudden wind brought a little sound of waves on the distant outer shore.
“Be of good cheer, I will take you to the Isles,” said the young captain. And, with stately courtesy, he put the fisherfolk in the boat and went with them to his ship. Then was heard the sound of ropes and blocks and the filling of sails, and presently the ship of Altair fled away like a bird into the dark sea. Already there were lights here and there on the dark waves, the lights of ships gone seeking the marvelous bell.
At the end of a fortnight of favoring wind and fine weather, the ship of Altair arrived by the Perilous Isles. Huge and high and dark were the Isles, and weed-hung reefs encircled them and tossed fountains of spray into the air.
Off the isle of the fishers, the kings of the world had prepared a fairway—for so mariners call a passage—through the cruel rocks, and at the entrance to this passage a warning bell sank and rose and nodded and swung in the seas.
And now the fisher-maiden and her mother bade a grateful farewell to the young captain Altair and were rowed ashore to the isle. The name of the maiden, you must know, was Thyrza. Her eyes were gray, and her hair a pretty ruddy-gold. And so fair she was and so honest and true her gaze, that Altair thought he had never seen her like in all the world.