Then the gang planks rattled in, and the lines were cast off, and the ship began to move.
Still the wharf was empty.

I think the Saxons had been driven back for a while, and that they did not yet know, so thick was the smoke of the burning, that the barrier at the end of the lane was unguarded.
Now there were five yards between ship and shore--then ten--then twenty.

The oars took the water, and she headed for sea.

Out of the smoke came my people, and ran yelling across the open, and I seemed to wake up.
"Thrond," I cried, "I take back my promise.

Let me go." "Eh!" he said, looking round.
I was then with my hands on the gunwale, in the act of leaping overboard, when he reached round and held me fast.
"Steady, fool!" he said; "you will have a dozen arrows through you.
"Here, hold him," he said sharply.
And the men fell on me, binding me deftly with a few turns of a line, and then troubling themselves no more about me.
Next moment there was a sharp hiss, and an arrow from the shore stuck in the deck close to me, and another chipped the tail of the dragon and glanced into the sea.