The thought came and
went from me, but I set Gerda's cloak round her loosely, so that if
need was it would fall from her at once; and I belted my mail
close, and tried to think how I might save her, if we must take to
the water perforce. I could swim in the mail well enough, and she
could swim also. There might be a chance for her. I feared more for
Dalfin.
Now we flew down on the first line of breakers, lifted on the
crest, half blinded with the foam, and plunged across it. I held my
breath as the bows swooped downward into the hollow of the wave,
fearing to feel the crash of the ship's striking, but she lifted
again to the next roller, while the white foam covered the decks as
the broken gunwale aft lurched amid it. So we passed four great
surges safely, and we were not an arrow flight from land. The water
was deep enough for us so far. Then we rose on the back of the
fifth roller, and it set us far before we overtook its crest and
passed it. The sharp bows leapt through the broken water into the
air, and hung for a long moment over the hollow, until the stern
lifted and they were flung forward and downward. Then came a sharp
grating and a little shock, gone almost as it was felt, but it told
of worse to come, maybe. We had felt the ground.
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