Dalfin broke that first short
silence.
"I am desperately hungry," he said. "Surely there will be food on
board?"
The breeze freshened up again, and the sail flattened against the
mast with a clap, and the ship quivered. It was naught to us, but
it made the landsman start and look upward as if expecting to see
somewhat carried away, while I laughed at him.
"Work first and food afterward," said Bertric. "We must tend ship
while wind is little, if at all. Why, we are not more than half
starved yet, for barley bread stands by one nobly."
"Give me somewhat to do, and maybe I shall forget the hunger,"
Dalfin answered ruefully. "Which of you two is to be captain?"
"Bertric," I said at once. "That is his place by all right."
"It is an old trade of mine," the Saxon said quietly "Well, it is
to be seen if I can justify my sayings of myself."
The sun had set by the time we boarded the ship, but we had not
noticed it in the bright twilight. The short northern night would
be no darker than now until the sunrising, for we were close on
midsummer, and there was every sign of settled fair weather after
the gale. Even now the last breeze was dying away, leaving the sea
bright and unruffled under the glow in the northwest sky. It was
only to be hoped that presently some summer breeze might suffer us
to lay our course southward or eastward, toward the land where we
might find haven and help.
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