"It depends on how we lie on the Orkney coasts whether it
drifts us to the northward or to the southward. We have been set to
the westward all night with the ebb."
"Wind may come with the flood," said he.
And that was the best we could hope for. But I set the steering oar
in the sculling rowlock aft, and did what I could in that way. At
least, it saved some of the westward drift, if it was of very
little use else.
Dalfin curled up in the sun and slept. He had no care for the
possible troubles which were before us, knowing naught of the sea;
but this calm made the Saxon and myself anxious enough.
"After all," I said, "maybe it will only be a matter of hunger for
a day or two."
Bertric smiled, and pointed to the locker under the stern thwart,
on which I was sitting.
"I think I told you that you were but a few minutes before me in
this matter," he said. "Well, when I heard that Asbiorn would take
the boat, I knew my chance had come. So I dropped six of your
barley loaves into her as she lay alongside the wharf, and stowed
them aft when I went to bale out the rain water that was in her.
The men were too much taken up with the plunder to mind what I was
about. I think your little water breaker is full also. It is there,
and I tried it.
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