Part 18 (1/2)

Each man ran with speed to obey, for the case was urgent.

Karlsefin found the women, with Olaf, a.s.sembled in the large house waiting for orders.

”Come,” he cried; ”not a moment to be lost. Give me your hand, Gudrid.”

He seized it as he spoke, and hurried down to the s.h.i.+p, where the men were already trooping on board as fast as they could. The women were soon put under cover out of the reach of missiles, and in a few minutes more all were on board. Of course the cattle, and live stock generally, being scattered about the hamlet, were left to their fate. Then the ropes were cast loose, the gangway was thrown down, the s.h.i.+p was pushed out into the bay, and the anchor let go.

All this had barely been accomplished when the canoes came sweeping round the nearest point of land and made straight for the s.h.i.+p, with the foam curling at their bows.

Then Karlsefin's voice rose loud and clear as he issued his final commands.

”My lads,” he cried, ”remember my orders about using your weapons as little as possible. Be careful to throw only the smaller stones. Kill no one if you can avoid it, but give as many of them the toothache as you can. We must be friends with these people if we are to live in peace here, and that won't be possible if we kill many of them.”

The men answered with a great shout, mingled with some laughter, which latter was such a strange sound to hear on the eve of an engagement, that the savages stopped short for a moment. But soon they came on again with redoubled impetuosity.

No sooner were they within range than the Nors.e.m.e.n rose up in a body and hurled a shower of stones at them. They were evidently not prepared for such artillery, for they again stepped short, but after a brief pause once more advanced. Three times did they receive a shower of stones before getting alongside. These hurt many, but disabled none, for, according to orders, no heavy stones were used. When within a few yards of the s.h.i.+p the canoes surrounded her and lay still while the savages began to discharge arrows in abundance. The Nors.e.m.e.n kept well behind the s.h.i.+elds, which formed a screen round the s.h.i.+p, and replied with stones, only a few of the best marksmen using arrows, when they saw a chance to wound without killing any of the foe.

Karlsefin stood exposed on the high p.o.o.p with Hake and Heika beside him.

All three wore iron helmets, and the leader protected himself with his s.h.i.+eld. Heika devoted his attention to warding off missiles from his brother, who, having to use his bow, could not manage a s.h.i.+eld.

Presently the savages made a grand a.s.sault. But the moment they came to close quarters they found that they had to cope with a formidable foe, for the Nors.e.m.e.n, using only bludgeons, knocked them down whenever they came within reach, and one or two of the boldest among them who succeeded in clambering up the sides were seized by the legs and arms and hurled back into the lake as if they had been mere puppets.

Thus beaten off they continued the arrow shower, and some of the Nors.e.m.e.n were wounded.

All this time Karlsefin stood close to the helm, looking sharply about him, and whenever he saw a savage who was bolder and stouter than his fellows, he made Hake send an arrow through his right hand. In this way most of the best men among them were sent off howling with pain, and for the time disabled. Suddenly a very tall active savage succeeded in clambering up by the rudder un.o.bserved, and leaping on the p.o.o.p, stood behind Karlsefin with uplifted club. Karlsefin, without turning quite round, gave him a back-handed slap under the left ear and sent him flying overboard. He fell into a canoe in his descent and sank it.

At this juncture a number of the canoes were detached from the fight, and Karlsefin observed, with much anxiety, that the savages were going to ransack the houses.

”Would that I were on sh.o.r.e with twenty of my best men!” he said bitterly. ”Send a shaft, Hake, at yonder fellow who leads. It is out of range, I fear, but--ha! well hit!” he exclaimed, on seeing an arrow from Hake's prompt hand strike the man full in the back. The savage fell, and his comrades crowded round him.

By that time others of the canoes had put ash.o.r.e, and their owners ran up to the crowd who surrounded the fallen leader.

At this moment an incident occurred which put a most unexpected termination to the fight.

For a considerable time Olaf's huge pet, Blackie, had viewed the fight with calm indifference from the heart of a thicket close by, in which he chanced to be cooling himself at the time. Now, it happened that one of the many arrows which were discharged by the savages on the offsh.o.r.e side of the s.h.i.+p glanced from a neighbouring tree and hit the bull on the flank. a.s.sociating the pain resulting therefrom with the group of savages before him, Blackie at once elevated his tail, lowered his head, and, with a bellow that would have shamed a thousand trumpets, charged furiously down upon the foe.

Horror-struck is but a feeble word to indicate the feelings of that foe!

Although, no doubt, some of them might have heard of, perhaps seen, the ponderous and comparatively quiet bison of the Western prairies, none of them had ever imagined anything so awful as a little black bull with tremendous horns, blood-red nostrils, flas.h.i.+ng eyes, and cat-like activity. One awe-struck look they gave it, and then fled howling into the woods. The sounds were so startling that those of the enemy still round the s.h.i.+p were panic-stricken and made off by water as fast as their fellows had escaped by land, leaving the Nors.e.m.e.n victorious!

”Hurrah for Blackie!” shouted Olaf, who was wild with excitement and delight.

The cheer thus claimed was given with intense enthusiasm, and then the s.h.i.+p was rowed back to the sh.o.r.e.

Here a great prize was found, in the shape of twenty canoes, which had been left by the party that had fled to the woods. These were carried carefully up to the hamlet and placed in security. On the way up another prize was found, which afterwards turned out to be of the utmost importance. This was the wounded savage, who had been forsaken by his friends when the bull charged, and who only escaped from the horns of that infuriated animal by lying quite motionless beside a log which fortunately chanced to be near him.

”Take care, Krake; lift him gently,” said Biarne, as he came up and found that worthy turning the poor savage over as if he had been already a dead carcase. ”Let me see; the arrow does not seem to have gone far in. He'll recover, perhaps. Come, Hake and Swend, lift his shoulders, and run, Olaf, tell Astrid or one of the other women to--ha! Bertha, well met. Here is a subject for your care. You are a good nurse, I'm told.”

”I try to be,” replied Bertha.