Adventure Magazine Cover — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Pie AS a +) Oe ey at Se ae eee _ (no th Nee oe eG Ee + ey oe Pi = eS ae toe ny Se mae, ~ » ‘ 3 + inate P A ant as ip Pa - See Jonk §9 a - Sos i aa! = ioe Sy Se Ses = get OSS sane BEE Bs Ty S$ “SAEs PO gf ee ee gee — Tete 3s) ey TIseh Sa > é Oat fre ge eg a ee = iret ak ew S~ o at - i Prisoners of War riverbank and leap achore to help block the Northmen’s retreat. Half of them at a time, and sometimes all of them, left the ears to lean over the bulwark and instruct Tros how to lead in to the bank; it was only when they saw the bireme drifting back- ward down the river that they returned to the oars reluctantly. There began to be downright mutiny again; one man threw a lump of wood that missed Tros by a hair’sbreadth; the wounded crawled on deck and cursed him for a coward alien. He thundered on the drum for silence, gesturing to Conops at the helm to hold the bireme in midriver. “You young fools!” he roared. “If you take their ship away, what have they left to retreat to?”’ But they did not see the point. They wanted to rush to Caswallon’s aid and share in the glory of cutting down the hereditary enemy. Three jumped overboard and swam for it. “Back to your arrow-engine, Orwic! Shoot the next man who leaves his bench! Row or Lud rot you! One! Two! One! Two! Easy, starboard. Port ahead. Now, all together, back her!” He swung the bireme’s stern toward the longship’s kedge-warp, and sent Conops overside to bend another warp to it, mak- ing that fast to the bireme’s stern. Then— down-stream now—he bullied them all to rowing until the kedge came up and the bireme swayed like a pendulum in mid- stream, mud boiling all around her. “Watch those three Northmen, Shoot if they try to cast off!” The longship heeled. Her bow began to swing round on the mud. Two of the three who guarded her ran to cut the kedge-warp with their swords. “Shoot!” Orwic loosed twelve arrows in one flight and one man fell; the other hid himself be- low the bulwarks; the third sprang to the longship’s stern and hacked the warp through with a battle-ax, but too late; the ship slid off the mud at last and glided into midstream. The bireme shot ahead when the warp parted; it was a minute_before backed oars could take the way off her; then, port oars forward, starboard oars astern, Tros swung her in a circle in midstream. Two minutes after that they broke three oars as the bireme bumped the longship Orwic! and a dozen Britons led by Orwic jumped aboard. The two Norsemen took te the river like water-rats; four Britons plunged after them; Tros lashed the ships together, beam to beam and let them drift down- river with the tide, which set toward the south bank, away from the fighting. | A quarter of a mile downstream he dropped two anchors, he and Conops stand- ing guard over the cables lest the indignant Britons should cut them and try to row across to the other side. Only Orwic, and he » nervously, stood by him; the remainder, wounded included, threatened, threatened and cursed him for a flinching coward; but as they could not swim, they could not leave him. Tros watched the far bank, trying to imagine what he himself would do if he were a Northman hemmed in by determined ene- mies and cut off from his ship. Those Northmen doubtless had a leader wise in war, chosen to lead raids because of pre- vious successes. He did not believe they would have landed without exploring all the riverbank; it was at least an even chance that the two who had swum for shore had reached their friends to warn them the ship was gone. Orwic bit his fingernails, torn three ways between loyalty to Tros, anxiety for his friends ashore and eagerness to lead his own men into the thick of the fighting. “By Lud, we will be too late!’ he grum- bled. “Too late! Too late! Tros 2 “Tf Caswallon can keep them away from the river, there’s no need for us,” Tros an- swered. “If they reach the river, theyll find boats and try to recapture their ship,” “But there aren’t any boats!” Orwic objected. | ‘Then again, no need for us! But TI will wager there are boats, among the reeds, and the Northmen know it.” “Then let’s hunt for boatsand burn them!” Tros laughed. “Set this crowd of ours ashore, and who'll keep them out of the fighting!” 3 The Britons, and some of the wounded with them, had nearly all jumped into the longship and were holding a sort of parlia- ment, even the hired seamen taking part. An iron bolt hurled at Tros just missed him ~ where he stood in the bireme’s bow, and some one shouted— “Cross the river, or well burn both ships!” Eomicbooks.com