into it, that it crushed the bone, and drove the man against the mast of
the ship so that the strong mast shook. Where he fell, there he lay, his
feet kicking the floor of the hold in his death-pain.

Then the Wanderer snatched from the mast his bow and his short sword,
slung the quiver about his shoulders, and ran on to the raised decking
of the prow.

The bulwarks of the deck were high, and the vessel was narrow, and
before the sailors could stir for amazement the Wanderer had taken his
stand behind the little altar and the dwarf-gods. Here he stood with
an arrow on the string, and the bow drawn to his ear, looking about him
terribly.

Now panic and dread came on the Sidonians when they saw him standing
thus, and one of the sailors cried:

"Alas! what god have we taken and bound? Our ship may not contain him.
Surely he is Resef Mikal, the God of the Bow, whom they of Javan call
Apollo. Nay, let us land him on the isle and come not to blows with him,
but entreat his mercy, lest he rouse the waves and the winds against
us."

But the captain of the ship of the Sidonians cried:

"Not so, ye knaves! Have at him, for he is no god, but a mortal man; and
his armour is worth many a yoke of oxen!"

Then he bade some of them climb the decking at the further end of the
ship, and throw spears at him thence; and he called others to bring up