I saw Bertric smiling.
"Shift of rowers," he said in a whisper, and Gerda's pale face brightened.

Then I heard Heidrek rating someone, and I heard, too, the tramp and rattle of the men who left and came to the oars; but by the time the steady pull began again we had passed the ship by a long way, and lost the sound almost as soon as it came.

Then there was silence once more, and the strain was past.

Our course would take us clear of the other ship by a mile or more.
So we held on for half an hour, and the fog grew no thinner.
Overhead, the sun tried to shine through it, but we could not see him, and still the wind drifted us and the fog together, and the decks grew wet and the air chill with the damp which clung round us.
Gerda sat very still for a long time after the last sounds were heard.

But at last she rose up and shivered.
"Let me go to my awning," she said unsteadily.