How could they escape between Scylla and Charybdis?
Timar said not a word of this to Timéa, but gave her back the glass, and told her where to look for the eagles' nest whose ancestors had fed the lovers. Then he threw off his coat hastily, sprung into the barge where the rowers were, and made five of them get into the small boat with him; they were to bring the light anchor and thin cable with them, and cast off.
Trikaliss and Timéa did not understand his orders, as he spoke Hungarian, which neither of them knew.
The captain shouted to the steersman, "Keep her steady; go ahead!" In a few moments Trikaliss also could see what was the danger. The drifting mill came floating swiftly down the brawling stream, and one could see with the naked eye the clattering paddle-wheel, whose width occupied the whole fairway of the channel. If it touched the laden ship both must go down.
The boat with the six men still struggled up against the current. Four of them rowed, one steered, and Timar stood in the bow with folded arms.
What was their insane design? What could they do in a little boat against a great mill? What are human mind and muscles against stream and storm?
If each were a Samson, the laws of hydrostatics would set at naught their strength. The shock with which they touch the mill will recoil on the skiff; if they grapple it they will be dragged away by it. It is as if a spider would catch a cockchafer in its web.
The boat, however, did not keep in the center, but tried to reach the southern point of the island.
So high were the waves that the five men disappeared again and again in the hollows between, then the next moment they danced on the foamy crest, tossed hither and thither by the willful torrent, seething under them like boiling water.