The Iron Star — And What It Saw on Its Journey Through the Ages: From Myth to HistoryTrue, John Preston
History
The Iron Star — And What It Saw on Its Journey Through the Ages: From Myth to History
True, John Preston
Iron -- History -- Juvenile fiction
Yet it was one thing to start out a-voyaging, sure of bringing up
somewhere if you only went far enough. It is quite another thing to be
equally sure of finding the way homeward over the trackless sea,
without a landmark from horizon to horizon to steer by for weeks and
weeks. What seems a sixth sense is given to some of us--the sense of
"direction," which the passenger pigeon has and which enables it to
fly straight back to its nest, though set free hundreds of miles from
home. When of old a young man had that faculty, the chances were that
he would become a famous pilot; and sometimes he might be charged with
witchcraft as a penalty for knowing too much! Ulf, a son of the
trackless Forest, had that sixth sense.
One morning the dawn-light revealed a black spot on the low horizon. A
speck that grew larger, with twinkling, fin-like flashes along each
side, and in due time it proved to be a galley like their own bearing
down straight for them. Nobody stopped to ask any questions. That was
not sea-style then. But just as naturally as two men now in a lonely
journey would shake hands on meeting, these two captains slipped their
arms through their shield-handles, sheered alongside just beyond oar-
tip, and exchanged cards in the shape of a couple of whistling
javelins.
Up from their benches sprang the rowers. Twang! sung their war-bows
the song of the cord, and the air was full of hissing whispers of
Death as their shafts hurtled past. Round and round the two galleys
circled in a strange dance, each steersman striving to bring his craft
bows on, so as to ram and crush the other, while they lurched in the
cross-seas, and rolled till they dipped in tons of water over the
rail.
Up sprang the stranger on his prow; tall and broad-shouldered was he,
with a torrent of ruddy hair floating in the wind. As Ulf turned to
give an order to bale out the inrushing water, up rose a brawny arm,
and a great spear flashed down from the high bow of the enemy and
struck fairly between his shoulders. So sharp was the blow, so sudden,
that Ulf pitched forward on one knee for just half a breath. But the
spear fell clanging to the deck. The ruddy warrior stood looking at it
with eyes of amazement. His own spear, that never before had failed! A
flash of light leaped back like a lightning stroke; back to its master
whistled the brand, for, ere he rose, Ulf snatched it up and as he
rose he hurled it--straight through the unguarded arm of the stranger.
"Hold!"
The shout rang sternly across the water and echoed back and forth from
sail to sail. The shouting hushed. Only the creak of the swaying yard,
the hoarse swash of the water, the panting of deep breathing broke the
silence, then once more from the lofty prow came the commanding voice.
"Who and whence art thou?"
"A son of the Forest am I," answered the other. "Ulf is my name, Ulf
the Silent my title, Jarl Sigurd my father by adoption. The sea is my
home; from over sea I came, and over sea am I going."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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