Then we baled out the water we had shipped, and sought for any leak there might be.  There was none of any account, though the upper planking of the ship was strained, and the wash of the sea found its way through the seams now and then.  We could keep that under by baling now and again if it grew no worse.

But in about an hour it was plain that a gale was setting in from the northeast, and the sea was rising.  We must run before it whether we would or no, and the sooner we put about the better, crippled as we were.  We must go as the gale drove us, and make what landfall we might, though where that would be we could not tell, for there was no knowing how far we were from the Norway shore, or whither we had drifted in the fog.

So we put the ship about, shipping a sea or two as we did so, and then, with our unhandy canvas full and boomed out as best we could with two oars lashed together, we fled into the unknown seas to south and west, well-nigh hopeless, save that of food and water was plenty.

I have no mind to tell of the next three days.  They were alike in gray discomfort, in the ceaseless wash of the waves that followed us, and in the fall of the rain.  We made terribly heavy weather of it, though the gale was not enough to have been in any way perilous for a well-found ship.  We had to bale every four hours or so, and at that time we learned that Gerda knew how to steer.  Very brave and bright was she through it all, and maybe that is the one pleasant thing to look back on in all that voyage.  We rigged the sail of the boat across the sharp, high gunwales of the stern as some sort of shelter for her, and she was content.

It was on the morning of the fourth day when we had at last a sight of land.  Right ahead of us, across the tumbling seas, showed the dim, green tops of mountains, half lost in the drifting rain.  We thought they might be the hills of the western islands of Scotland, but could not tell, so utterly had we lost all reckoning.

Whatever the land might be we had to find out presently, for in no way could we escape from a lee shore.  Nor was it long before we found that here was no island before us, such an we expected, but a long range of coast, which stretched from east to west, as far as we could see, in a chain of hills.  All I could say for certain was that these hills were none which I knew, and so could not be those of the northern Scottish coasts, which I had sailed past many a time.

There was more sun this morning, for the clouds were breaking.  Once or twice the light fell on the far hilltops, bringing them close to us, as it were, and then passing.  Out to seaward astern of us it gleamed on the white wavetops, hurried after us, and cheered us for a time, and so swept on to the land that waited our coming, with what welcome we could not say.  Presently a gleam lit on a small steady patch of white far astern of us, which did not toss with the nearer waves, and did not shift along the skyline.  It was the first sail we had seen since we had lost sight of Heidrek, and it, too, cheered us in a way, for the restless, gray and white sea was no longer so lonely.  Yet we could look for no help from her, even if she sighted us and was on the same course.  We could not heave to and wait her, and by the time she overhauled us, we were likely to be somewhat too near the shore for safety.