So it was not long before the old king lay
with his feet toward the sea on the fathom of planking which we had
lowered from where it was made to unship for a gangway amidships
for shore-going and the like. We had set him so that it needed but
to raise the inboard end of this planking when the time came that
he should pass from his ship to his last resting in the quiet
water; and he was still in all his arms, with his hands clasped on
the hilt of his sword beneath the shield which covered his breast,
but now shrouded in the new sail of one of his boats in the
seaman's way.
At this time the fog was thinning somewhat, and the low sun seemed
likely to break through it now and then. It was very still all
round us, for there was no sound of ripple at the bows or wash of
water alongside, and the swell which lifted us did not break. Only
there was the little creaking of the yard and the light beating of
the idle sail against the mast as the ship rolled and swung to the
swell. Some little draught of wind, or the send of the waves, had
set her bows to it, and she rode the water like a sea bird at rest.
Gerda came at a word when all was ready, and stood beside us with
clasped hands. And so for a little time we four stood with a space
between us and the head of that rough sea bier, and over against us
beyond it the open gangway and the heaving, gray water, which now
and then rose slowly and evenly almost to the deck level and again
sank away.
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