But the next roller hove us forward swiftly, and we hardly overran it, so that it carried us safely.  Now we were so near the shore that a stone would have reached it, and but two ranks of breakers were to be passed.  I bade my two companions hold on for their lives, and set my arm round Gerda before the crash should come, and we lifted to the first of them, but it was almost as swift as we, and it carried us onward bravely.

Then the keel grated on the ground, and we lost way.  The surge overtook us and drove us forward, crashing on the stones of the beach, but hardly striking with any force.  The bows lifted, and I saw the rattling pebbles beneath us as the sea sucked them back.  A great sea rolled in, hissing and roaring round the high stern, and breaking clear over it and Bertric as he stood at the helm, and it lifted us once more as if we were but a tangle of seaweed, and hurled us upward on the stony slope, canting the stern round as it reached us.  We were ashore and safely beached, and the danger was past.  The ship took the ground on her whole length as the wave went back.

Out of the smother of water and foam astern, as the next wave broke over the ship, Bertric struggled forward to us, laughing as he came.  The sea ran along the deck knee deep round him as far as the foot of the mast, but it did not reach us here in the bows, though the spray flew over us, and our ears were full of the thunder of the surf on the beach.  But the sharp bows were firmly bedded in the shingle, and we were in no danger of broaching to as wave after wave hurled itself after us.

Bertric had stayed to take the casket of gold from the place in the stern where we had set it.

“I had no mind to see the stern go to pieces and take this with it,” he said, setting the load at his feet.  “The tide has not reached its height yet, and she will be roughly handled.  We had best get ashore while we can.  We may do it between the breakers.”

I watched the next that came roaring past us.  It ran twenty yards up the shelving beach, and then went back with a rush and rattle of pebbles, leaving us nearly dry around the bows.  We might have three feet of water to struggle through at first for a few paces, but that was nothing.  Even Gerda could be no wetter than she was, and the one fear was that one might lose foothold when the next wave came.  It did not take long to decide what we had to do, therefore.

A wave came in, spent itself in rushing foam, and drew back.  I was over the bows with its first sign of ebb, and dropped into the water when it seemed well-nigh at its lowest, finding it neck-deep for the moment.  It sank to my waist, and Dalfin was alongside me, spluttering.  Then Bertric helped Gerda over the gunwale, and I took her in my arms, holding her as high as I could, and turning at once shoreward.  I tried to hurry, but I could not go fast, for the water sucked me back, while Dalfin waded close behind me.  Then I heard Bertric shout, and I knew what was coming.  The knee-deep water gathered again as the next roller stayed its ebb, swirled and deepened round me, and then with a sudden rush and thunder the wave came in, broke, and for a moment I was buried in the head of it, and driven forward by its weight.  I felt Gerda clutch me more tightly, and Dalfin was thrown against me, gasping, and he steadied me.