"Odin! Well shot!" shouted Ulric, but the bowstring twanged again and another Roman fell upon the deck beside the dead steersman.
Left to itself and to the will of the wind and the waves, around swung the keel of the Romans, while a great surge poured over her bulwarks and her rowers were hurled from their seats. Wild was their shouting and another surge poured in.
"Strike her not!" said Sigurd. "Be thou prudent with thine own keel, lest thou shouldst be in some manner disabled. Let the Greek send his arrows, but steer upon thy course."
Ulric so ordered, but shaft after shaft did Lysias send, not all of them hitting, but not all failing of a mark. Other war horns than that of Ulric were sounding and other bows were also quickly plying.
"I think," said Tostig the Red, "that we have no better bowman than this Greek. He will be a good help in a sea fight. I like well to see his long arrows go so straight to their places. Then the mark goeth down and it is time to laugh."
The Roman rowers were toiling hard to recover control of their vessel, but the Saxons knew little of the astonishment and dismay that reigned on board of her. Her crew had not thought of an open enemy at the first. They had deemed _The Sword_ a friend until the sounding of the jarl's war horn. Even then they had expected no resistance, at least no attack, until their steersman fell and a man of rank near him was pierced by an arrow.
Better than a sailing vessel can a rowed keel turn her head to the waves, however, and before long the Romans were once more striving to overtake the Saxons.
Clouds without rain swept fast across the sky and the waves followed _The Sword_ as if they willed to overwhelm her. Well was it that her stern was so high and that she was strongly builded. It had seemed, also, that no sea harm had befallen her pursuer, but now the darkness deepened and the watchers on _The Sword_ could no longer discern the Roman.
"O jarl," said Sigurd, "it is a time for prudence. This flying sand telleth of some shore, I think, at no great distance."
"It might be carried far by such a wind," said Ulric. "But Ben Ezra told me of great cities in Africa which have been buried by the sand blown from the inner deserts."