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So we went down to the shipyard, under the lee of Reedham Hill, and found old Kenulf our pilot, and with him went round our stout Frisian ship that my father had bought long ago, and at once bade him get ready for sailing as soon as might be.
No man knew the Thames-mouth channels better than our pilot, Kenulf the sea crafty, as we called him. Then it fell dead calm, quite suddenly, and we drifted, with the sail flapping against the mast idly, for half an hour or so.
And, moreover, when the fog lifted we had seen no ship, though there must be one close to us now, and we wondered. But Kenulf came to me presently with a scared face, and waiting till the men had gone forward to find their food, he asked me if I heard the voice that spoke. "Aye, surely," I answered. "What of it?" "Master," he said, "the voice was a Danish voice, as I think.
They are supposed to contain the bones of Kings Eadulph, Kinegils, Kenulf, Egbert, Canute, Rufus, Edmund, Edred, Queen Emma, and Bishops Wina and Alwyn. They no doubt got much mixed up when removed from the crypt by Henry de Blois, and again when the chests were broken open by the Parliamentarians, so that a detailed identification has been made impossible.
At last my father, ever keen of sight, said to me: "This thing is not at the mercy of wind and wave. Rather has it the rise and fall of a boat well handled. Yet whence should one come in this heavy sea, after three days' gale?" Even as he spoke, old Kenulf growled, half to himself, that to his thinking this was a boat coming, and handled, moreover, by men who knew their trade.
"Nay," said old Kenulf; "it behaves not as a whale, and it comes too swiftly for wreckage." "Would it were a dead whale. Then would be profit," said another man again, and after that the men were silent for a long while, having said all that could be guessed, and watched the speck that drew nearer and nearer, bearing down on us.
And that was a welcome order to Kenulf and our crew also; for well do the North Folk of East Anglia love the sea, if our Saxon kin of the other kingdoms have forgotten for a while the ways of their forbears.
So I bade Kenulf give the three who remained the best cheer that we might, treating them as Lodbrok's men; for the old pilot loved the jarl well, and I knew that for his sake he would do much. Then in a few more minutes I stood on the deck of Halfden's ship, and word went round quickly of my news, so that I had a good welcome.
"Go back with tide and slip past them even now," said Kenulf, though I think he knew that this was hopeless, for if we rowed, the sound of our oars would betray us, and if not we should be on a shoal before long, whence any escape would be impossible. "Hark!" I said in another moment, and we listened. There was little noise beyond the lapping of the swift tide against our sides.
But even as we saw it, the fog closed round us again and the wind died away, so that we lowered the sail, and the men got out the oars, and slowly, while Kenulf swung the lead line constantly, we crept on among the sand banks down the coast. Presently the tide turned against us, and Kenulf thought well that we should drop anchor and wait for its turning again.
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