She was a stout trading vessel, built for burden more than speed, but she seemed light in the water, as though she had little cargo for this voyage.

She had raised decks fore and aft, and there were low doors in the bulkheads below them that seemed to lead to some sort of cabins.

Under the forward of these decks the outlaws began to stow their bales, the man who had called Thorgils ashore directing them.
I lay just at the gangway, and a little on one side so as not to block it, and I watched all that went on, helplessly.

There was no one near me, or I think that I should have made some desperate effort to call a Norseman to my help.

Maybe Evan thought me safer here than nearer the place where all were busy, as yet, but presently I heard voices on the wharf as if some newcomers were drawing near, and Evan heard them also, and left his cargo to hasten to my side.