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Updated: June 20, 2025
"From this I judge that they are much hunted," said Bladud, halting on a ridge to note the wild flight, of a herd of deer which had just caught eight of them. "If so, we are likely to fall in with the hunters before long, I fear," remarked the captain. "Why do you fear?" asked Maikar.
Bladud and some of the crew were listening at the time to an account given by a small seaman named Maikar, of a recent adventure on the sea, when a galley about as large as their own was seen to shoot suddenly from the mouth of a cavern in the cliffs in which it had lain concealed. It was double-banked and full of armed men, and was rowed in such a way as to cut in advance of the Penelope.
"We are sure to meet with a wild boar or a bull before long, or it may be a bear," said Maikar, "and the hides of any of these will serve our purpose well." "That is, if we use them well," remarked the captain. "No one said otherwise," retorted Maikar. "Some people are so full of wise thoughts that they blurt them out, without reason, apparently to get rid of them."
"A strange way to mark his home-coming," muttered Captain Arkal, thrusting himself as near to the scene of action as possible, closely followed by Maikar, who, being little, kept easily in his wake. "He knows well what he's about," returned the little man, whose admiration for Bladud was great, and his belief in him unbounded.
Both men sprang overboard at the same moment, and made for the spot where little Maikar was still giving vent to bubbling yells and struggling with his oar. Bladud was soon alongside of him, and, seizing his hair, raised him out of the water. "Got the cramp," he shouted. "Keep still, then, and do what I tell ye," said the prince, in a tone of stern command.
"Well," continued the captain, "there's one group of stars about six plainly to be seen on most fine nights, two stars of which are always pretty much in a line with a little star a short way in front of them d'ye see?" "Yes." "Stop!" cried Maikar in great perplexity for although a seaman he was densely ignorant. I've no more idea of where you've got me to now than than "
"Dried meat!" exclaimed little Maikar, his eyes and indeed his whole visage blazing with delighted surprise. "Right. Maikar. I knew that you would be hungry when we got ashore, so I caught up two pieces of meat and stuffed them into my breast just as we were leaving one for Arkal and me; the other for you. It may not be quite enough, perhaps, but will do, I hope, to keep you quiet till morning."
The stealthy manner in which the man moved among the bushes, and the earnest gaze which he directed from time to time in one particular direction, showed clearly that he was watching the movements of something it might be a deer or an enemy. "Evidently he has not seen us," whispered Maikar. "Clear enough that, for he is not looking this way," returned Arkal.
Some were carried by currents against a point to the westward and, apparently, dashed against the rocks. Others sank before half the distance had been traversed. Bladud and the captain looked at each other when Maikar had left them. "Can you swim?" asked the captain. "Like a duck," returned the prince, "and I can help you if required."
"It comes into my head," said the captain, "that Maikar and I must provide ourselves with shields and spears of some sort, for if the people of the land are warlike, we may have to defend ourselves." "That is as you say," returned the prince, rising as he spoke and going towards a long straight bough of a neighbouring tree, on which he had fixed a critical gaze.
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