The lamp burned low and it was flickering. Without the gale roared loudly and the waves beat against the sides of the ship with a groaning sound. There was no voice but of the wind and of the surges. The curtains in the cabin swayed to and fro, as did the cresset of the lamp.
"Hilda! Hilda!" murmured Ulric, but he saw her not, and even his thought of her was confused in his mind. The saga woman was tall and dark, but not so tall and fairer was this thought which came before his eyes as if he were in a dream:
"So beautiful! So beautiful!" he said. "Her eyes are like stars and her hair is a cloud of shining curls. Her lips are like the ruby of the temple. I think she is one of the Hebrew maidens that Ben Ezra saith excel all others. I will go to that land and find her, for it must be that she also is of the daughters of the gods. And now I can see Hilda, and her hair is white, but her eyes are shut. Therefore I know that they have carried her to the tomb that was made in the rock of Odin. I shall see her no more until I get to Asgard. If this is her hand upon my head, she should speak, for I love her well."
He listened, and the lamp went out, but no voice came; and he lay down upon his couch, but a fire was kindling in his heart.
"Lysias loveth Sapphira," he thought, "but thus did I never feel before. The Hebrew maiden! I would Ben Ezra had not told me of her, for now I can have no other. I had thought that my love would be blue-eyed and a daughter of Odin. Shall I not be content if I find that she is dark, and that she is a daughter of this Jehovah, the god of the Jews? I will go on and I will see what she will say to me."
Then he slept, and _The Sword_ swept onward swiftly toward the sunrise.
Through one day more the western gale blew furiously and _The Sword_ was driven before it, for none on board cared for any better steering. Many vessels were seen from time to time, but all were too busy caring for themselves to pay overmuch attention to a trireme that might be fighting the storm as they were. The vikings were at ease concerning the weather, but they grumbled much that the tossing and pitching of their ship prevented them from making fires wherewith to roast their beef or to broil their fish. On board their Roman keel they had found gratings of iron for cooking, better than any of their North making. These gratings were wide, upheld by iron feet, and under them were slabs of stone to receive ashes and cinders. Fire would remain upon them well in any ordinary weather, but in such as this the brands and coals might be cast hither and thither. It was not even a time for the telling of sagas nor for the lyre of Lysias, and again the men grew moody and sullen.