Better than a sailing vessel can a rowed keel turn her head to the waves, however, and before long the Romans were once more striving to overtake the Saxons.
[CHAPTER XVI.]
The Dead God in Africa.
Clouds without rain swept fast across the sky and the waves followed The Sword as if they willed to overwhelm her. Well was it that her stern was so high and that she was strongly builded. It had seemed, also, that no sea harm had befallen her pursuer, but now the darkness deepened and the watchers on The Sword could no longer discern the Roman.
"O jarl," said Sigurd, "it is a time for prudence. This flying sand telleth of some shore, I think, at no great distance."
"It might be carried far by such a wind," said Ulric. "But Ben Ezra told me of great cities in Africa which have been buried by the sand blown from the inner deserts."
"What further counsel hath he?" asked Sigurd.
"Answer him, thou," said the jarl to Ben Ezra.
"O warrior of the Saxons," said the Jew, "thou sayest that thou hast sailed these seas aforetime. Thou mayest know that the presence of one Roman trireme portendeth the speedy gathering of a fleet. It were well to destroy this one if she cometh near us again. But we have now escaped her pursuing. Let her watchers not see this ship again. I would advise that we now go eastward by the stars, for we may note them at times through the rifts in the clouds."