But the next roller hove us forward swiftly, and we hardly overran
it, so that it carried us safely. Now we were so near the shore
that a stone would have reached it, and but two ranks of breakers
were to be passed. I bade my two companions hold on for their
lives, and set my arm round Gerda before the crash should come, and
we lifted to the first of them, but it was almost as swift as we,
and it carried us onward bravely.
Then the keel grated on the ground, and we lost way. The surge
overtook us and drove us forward, crashing on the stones of the
beach, but hardly striking with any force. The bows lifted, and I
saw the rattling pebbles beneath us as the sea sucked them back. A
great sea rolled in, hissing and roaring round the high stern, and
breaking clear over it and Bertric as he stood at the helm, and it
lifted us once more as if we were but a tangle of seaweed, and
hurled us upward on the stony slope, canting the stern round as it
reached us. We were ashore and safely beached, and the danger was
past. The ship took the ground on her whole length as the wave went
back.
Out of the smother of water and foam astern, as the next wave broke
over the ship, Bertric struggled forward to us, laughing as he
came. The sea ran along the deck knee deep round him as far as the
foot of the mast, but it did not reach us here in the bows, though
the spray flew over us, and our ears were full of the thunder of
the surf on the beach.
Pages:
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141