"Over the side, feet first!" gasped Reith, climbing the rail. "Don't hit the grating!"
A pirate charged the fugitives with a pike. Captain Gendu snatched up the cutlass he had dropped and whirled. A sound of chopping meat, followed by the clatter of the pike and the thud of a body, told that tale.
Alicia swung at another pirate, who dodged back. Then, throwing her sword at the Krishnan, she sprang to the rail.
Reith struck the water feet first, went under, and bobbed up. Alicia's falling body struck his shoulder and knocked him under again. This time he came up choking and coughing.
"G-get away from the ship!" he wheezed. "Where's Gendu?"
"I have him," said Marot's calm voice. "Put your elbows on the raft, Captain, and let us do the swimming."
Marot added the strength of his legs to the vehement kicks of Reith and Alicia, and slowly the ponderous hatch crept away from the Haghrib.
Something whistled through the dark and plunked into the water. "They're shooting!" said Reith. "Faster!" He moved to the side of the raft, holding it with one hand while swimming side stroke.
Another arrow hissed, and the sound ended in a faint thud. "I'm struck!" said Gendu.
Marot said: "It appears to be lodged in your shoulder muscle, Captain. I do not think that it is fatal. We shall remove it ashore."
"I knew ... this crazy scheme ... my doom," growled Gendu.
Hours passed, while the moons and stars wheeled slowly across the sky. They neared the shore of Cape Dirkash with heartbreaking slowness, as they often had to stop to rest. During the first of these halts, Alicia said: "We must have swum clear to Majbur!"
"Save your breath, Alicia. We could make better time without clothes dragging at us."
"Right! Hold my head out of water."
Reith held up her chin while she struggled out of the scarf, the jacket, and the kilt. He then tried to unbutton his own shirt and trousers, but gave himself a ducking as he fumbled with the wet garments.
"Put your shoulders up on the raft, Fergus," said Alicia. "I'll manage the buttons ... There!"
Reith's and Alicia's clothes and Reith's money belt were heaped on the grating. Reith said:
"How about you, Aristide?"
"My undergarment, it does not incommode me."
Rests became more frequent as they tired. At the second stop, Marot exclaimed: "Where is Captain Gendu?"
They peered into the ambient dark and called, but the captain was not to be seen. Reith said: "He must have slipped off and drowned. His wound looked superficial, but I guess the loss of his ship destroyed his will to live."
"Unless," said Marot, "he was taken by one of those sea monsters, like the gvam."
"Oh, lord!" said Alicia. "What if it comes back for seconds?"
"Nothing much we can do about it," said Reith. "All we can do is keep swimming and hope for the best. Let's go!"
They swam again. At the next halt, Alicia said: "Aristide, what's in that bag of stuff you brought out of the cabin?"
"My fossils, naturellement."
"What?" cried Reith. "How in Bákh's name did you salvage them?"
"That is a curious story. Tondi drank heavily during our assignation, perhaps to steel herself for the ordeal of an interplanetary amour. Hence she told me more than, I suspect, she would have sober.
"It came out that, while we were riding back to Jazmurian, High Priestess Lazdai got word by bijar post to members of her faction in the Temple of Bákh in Jazmurian, offering a fabulous reward for us and the fossils. When the members of this faction, who hope to seize control of the temple in her name, went to look for us, we had already parted on the Kubitar.
"But Tondi keeps a spy in Qirib, to apprise her of the sailings of treasure ships, to arrange ransoms, et ainsi de suite. Lazdai's faction informed this spy of the offer, and he passed it on to Tondi at their next rendezvous, in a secret cove on the coast of Qirib."
"How'd you make out with Tondi?" asked Reith.
"I upheld the honor of France, although I was tempted to hold my nose while so doing. But that was not the most serious difficulty."
"What was that?" exclaimed Alicia and Reith in unison.
"It was trying not to laugh at a time when laughter might have had fatal results. You see, my friends, the pirate queen had somehow got her hands on the little Alicia's Krishnan dress, the one that shows her mamelons. Needless to say, it did not fit; but Tondi was determined to play the glamorous seductress. When I entered, she had split the fabric in pulling it over her circumference, and she demanded that I push the little buttons through all those loops in back. But the edges of the material failed to come within half a meter of meeting. I did not dare tell her so, lest in a rage she have me thrown overboard like those poor sailors."
"What did you do?" Alicia asked.
"I convinced her that the buttons were purely ornamental, not intended to be fastened. Then she pirouetted before me as she had seen Alicia do, evidently hoping thus to arouse my passions. But so bizarre was the spectacle that I was compelled to disguise my laughter by a violent spasm of coughing. After I had coughed like a terminal case of pulmonary disease, we got down to the serious business of the assignation.
"When I could not repeat my performance every few minutes, I explained that we poor, weak Ertsuma had to rest between times. That was when she asked me about the bag of stones; so I told her about fossils. Oddly, she seemed fascinated by my talk of ancient eras and vanished life forms and begged me to tell her more. I was lecturing her on paleontology when your diversion began. I must say for her that she proved a more attentive audience than some undergraduate classes I have addressed on Terra." He glanced back at the blazing hulk of the Haghrib, small in the distance. "The fire seems to have defeated their efforts. There goes a mast! I do not think any of these rascals will survive."
"I hope not," said Reith. "Now let's swim some more."
The stars had wheeled across the sky, and the sky itself was growing opalescent with the approach of dawn, when the swimmers heard breakers. Marot said: "I hope we approach a sandy beach and not a stretch of jagged rock. It would be a pity to be dashed to our deaths against a cliff after having endured so much."
"Sounds like a beach surf to me," grunted Reith. "We'll know when we get there."
In the feeble dawn light they staggered out on a smooth, sandy beach. They picked their few possessions off the grating and abandoned it to the sea. Reith and Alicia spread their clothes out to dry and collapsed on the sand beside the already recumbent Marot. Alicia still wore the ornate necklace she had picked out of the chest. Its gems, winking in the growing light, outshone the fading stars.
Roqir was rising high in the greenish Krishnan sky when three armed men on shomals—a tall Krishnan quadruped, somewhat like a humpless camel—trotted along the beach. They halted at the sight of three Ertsuma, two nude and one clad in Terran underdrawers, asleep on the sand. At the sound of voices, the younger male awoke.
"Qararuma?" asked Reith blearily.
"Aye," said the rider who, respendent in silvered mail, appeared the leader. "I hight Sir Hulil, and these be my men-at-arms. The burning of a ship off this shore hath been reported. Canst tell aught of this?"
"Can I!" said Reith. "I could a tale unfold ..." He touched Alicia and Marot. "Wake up! Help has arrived! Aristide, you may get another train ride after all."