Then he had a confused recollection of being swept along by an
irresistible current, clinging the while to what he afterwards
found to be a friendly plank, and after that came oblivion.




CHAPTER III.

THE HOLY ISLE.


With the first glimmer of consciousness, Estein became aware of an
aching head and a bruised body. Next he felt that he was very wet
and cold; and then he discovered that he was not alone. His head
rested on something soft, and two hands chafed his temples.

"Helgi," he said.

A voice that was not Helgi's replied, "Thanks be to the saints! he
is alive."

Estein started up, and his gaze met a pair of dark blue eyes. They
and the hands belonged to a fair young girl, a maid of some
seventeen summers, on whose knees his aching head had just been
resting.

They were sitting on a shelving rock that jutted into the tideway,
and at his feet his kindly plank bumped gently in an eddy of the
current.