present, and try to look frightened if you can."
"I fear me that will be difficult, captain."
"Not in the least. Look here, nothing is easier when you get used toit."
As he spoke Arkal caused his stern visage to relax into a look of suchamiable sheepishness that Bladud could not repress a sudden laugh whichrecalled and intensified the captain's fierce expression instantly.
"Learn to subdue yourself, young man," he muttered sternly. "If thesepirates hear laughter, do you think they can be made to believe we areafraid of them?"
"Forgive me, captain; if you had seen your own face, you would havejoined in the laugh. I will be more careful. But how do you mean toproceed, and what do you wish me to do?"
Captain Arkal, who was restored to good-humour by this compliment to hispower of expression, as well as by the modesty with which the princereceived his rebuke, explained his intentions--in low, earnest tones,however, for they were by that time drawing near to the piratical craft.
Having got well ahead of the _Penelope_, it had backed its sail and laystill, awaiting her coming up.
"Creep to the bow, Bladud, with your helmet off, and show as little ofyour bulk as may be. Show only your head above the bulwarks, and lookas miserable as I did just now--more so if you can. Take your sword,javelin, and shield with you. I need say no more to a man of war. Usethem when you see your opportunity."
Bladud received his orders in silence, and obeyed them with thatunquestioning and unhesitating promptitude which is one of the surestevidences of fitness to command. Meanwhile the mate, who was accustomedto his captain's habits, and needed no instructions, had caused thesailors to lay their shields and swords out of sight at their feet, sothat they might approach the pirates in the character of simple traderswho were completely cowed by the appearance of the foe. To increasethis aspect of fear, the sail was lowered as they drew near, and theoars were used to complete the distance that yet intervened between thetwo vessels.
This humble and submissive approach did not, however, throw the piratesquite off their guard. They stood to their arms and prepared to springon board their victim when close enough. As the pirate vessel laymotionless on the water she presented her broadside to the trader. Thecaptain took care to steer so that this relative position should bemaintained. The pirate chief, a huge man in rude armour, with abreast-plate of thick bull-hide and a shield of the same on his leftarm, gave orders to pull the oars on one side of his vessel so that thetwo might be brought alongside.
They were about fifty yards apart at the moment. Before the order couldbe carried into effect, however, Arkal uttered a low hiss. Instantlythe double banks of oars bent almost to the breaking point, and the_Penelope_ leaped forward like a sentient creature. Each man seizedsword and shield and sprang up, and Bladud, forgetting both helmet andshield in the hurry of the moment, poised the mighty javelin which hadso astonished its owner's enemies in days gone by, and in another momenthurled it shrieking through the air. It flew straight as a thunderboltat the pirate chief; pierced through shield and breastplate, and cameout at his back, sending him headlong into the arms of his horrifiedcrew.
The whole incident was so sudden that the pirates had scarcely time torecover from their surprise when the bow of the _Penelope_ crashed intothe side of their vessel and stove it in, for the trader, like some ofthe war-vessels of the period, was provided with a ram for this verypurpose.
As the _Penelope_ recoiled from the shock, a yell of rage burst from thepirates, and a volley of javelins and stones followed, but, owing to theconfusion resulting from the shock, these were ill-directed, and such ofthem as found their mark were caught on the shields. Before anotherdischarge could be made, the pirate vessel heeled over and sank, leavingher crew of miscreants struggling in the sea. Some of them--being,strange to say, unable to swim--were drowned. Others were killed in thewater, while a few, taking their swords in their teeth, swam to thetrader and made desperate attempts to climb on board. Of course theyfailed, and in a few minutes nothing remained of the pirate vessel totell of the tragedy that had been enacted, except an oar or two and afew spars left floating on the sea.
"Would that all the sea-robbers in these parts could be as easily andthoroughly disposed of," remarked the captain, as he gave orders tore-hoist the sail. "Ho! Bladud, my worthy prince, come aft here. Whatdetains you?"
But Bladud did not answer to the call. A stone from the enemy hadfallen on his defenceless head and knocked him down insensible.
Four of the men now raised him up. As they did so, one of the men--thesmall seaman, Maikar--was found underneath him in a state ofsemi-consciousness. While they carried Bladud aft, the little sailorbegan to gasp and sneeze.
"Not killed, I see," remarked the mate, looking into his face with someanxiety.
"No, not quite," sighed Maikar, drawing a long breath, and raisinghimself on one elbow, with a slightly dazed look, "but I never was sonearly burst in all my life. If an ox had fallen on me he could nothave squeezed me flatter. Do, two of you, squeeze me the other way, toopen me out a little; there's no room in me left to breathe--scarcelyroom to think."
"Oh! your battles are not yet over, I see," said the mate, going off tothe stern of the vessel, where he found Bladud just recoveringconsciousness and smiling at the remarks of the captain, who busiedhimself in stanching the wound, just over his frontal bone, from whichblood was flowing freely.
"H'm! this comes of sheer recklessness. I told you to take off yourhelmet, but I did not tell you to keep it off. Man, you launched thatjavelin well!--better than I could have done it myself. Indeed, I doubtif my old grandfather could have done it with such telling effect--straight through and through. I saw full a hand-breadth come out at thevillain's back. What say you, mate? Little Maikar wounded?"
"No, not wounded, but nearly burst, as he says himself; and no wonder,for Bladud fell upon him."
"Didn't I tell you, mate," said the captain, looking up with a grin,"that nothing will kill little Maikar? Go to, man, you pretend to be ajudge of men; yet you grumbled at me for engaging him as one of ourcrew. Do you feel better now, prince?"
"Ay, greatly better, thank you," replied Bladud, putting his hand gentlyon the bandages with which the captain had skilfully bound his head.
"That is well. I think, now, that food will do you service. What sayyou?"
"Nay, with your leave, I prefer sleep," said the prince, stretchinghimself out on the deck. "A little rest will suffice, for my head isnoted for its thickness, and my brain for its solidity--at least so mygood father was wont to say; and I've always had great respect for hisopinion."
"Ah, save when it ran counter to your own," suggested Arkal; "andespecially that time when you ran away from home and came out here inthe long ship of my trading friend."
"I have regretted that many a time since then, and I am now returninghome to offer submission."
"D'you think that he'll forgive you?"
"I am sure he will, for he is a kind man; and I know he loves me, thoughhe has never said so."
"I should like to know that father of yours. I like your description ofhim--so stern of face, yet so kind of heart, and with such anunchangeable will when he sees what is right. But what _is_ right, andwhat is wrong?"
"Ay--what is--who can tell? Some people believe that the gods maketheir will known to man through the Delphic Oracle."
"Boh!" exclaimed the captain with a look of supreme contempt.
The turn of thought silenced both speakers for a time; and when CaptainArkal turned to resume the conversation, he found that his friend wassound asleep.
CHAPTER THREE.
ON THE VOYAGE.
Weather has always been, and, we suppose, always will be, capricious.Its uncertainty of character--in the Levant, as in the Atlantic, in daysof old as now, was always the same--smiling to-day; frowning to-morrow;playful as a lamb one day; raging like a lion the next.
After the rough handling experienced by the _Penelop
e_ at the beginningof her voyage, rude Boreas kindly retired, and spicy breezes from Africarippled the sea with just sufficient force to intensify its heavenlyblue, and fill out the great square-sail so that there was no occasionto ply the oars. One dark, starlight but moonless night, a time ofquiet talk prevailed from stem to stern of the vessel as the grizzledmariners spun long yarns of their prowess and experiences on the deep,for the benefit of awe-stricken and youthful shipmates whose careerswere only commencing.
"You've heard, no doubt, of the great sea-serpent?" observed littleMaikar, who had speedily recovered from the flattening to which Bladudhad subjected him, and was busy enlivening a knot of young fellows inthe bow of the ship.
"Of course we have!" cried one; "father used to tell me about it when Iwas but