Page 79 - A Knight of the White Cross

warmly, for Harcourt and I doubly owe our lives to you. It was thanks to
your quickness of wit that we regained our boat, for I would not have given

a ducat for our chances had you not thought of that scheme. In the second
place, we should assuredly have been overtaken again had it not been for

your happy thought of crippling them by burning their sails. By St. George,
Harcourt, this young countryman of ours is as quick and as ready of wit as
he has shown himself a brave and gallant fighter! We have no lack of

sturdy fighters; but the wit to devise and to seize upon the right thing in the
moment of danger is vastly more rare. As for myself, I have no shame that

this lad, who is young enough to be my son, should have thus, twice in a
single hour, pointed out the way to safety. With sword and battleaxe I can, I
trust, hold my own with any man; but my brain is dull when it comes to

hatching schemes. If we live, we shall see Sir Gervaise one of the most
distinguished knights of the Order."

"While I feel gratified indeed, as I may well be by your commendation, Sir
John, I must, under your favour, say that you have given me a far greater

degree of credit than is my due. There was the fire, and there was the sail,
and the thought that the one would destroy the other was simply a natural

one, which might have occurred to a child. As to the plan about the boat,
seeing that there was the hill and the wood, it flashed upon me at once that
we might make a circuit and come back to her."

"Just so, lad; but those thoughts did not flash upon my mind, nor upon that

of Harcourt. It is just because those sort of ideas do flash upon the minds of
some men, and not of others, that the first rise to the rank of distinguished
commanders, while the others remain simple knights who would play their

part in a charge or in the defence of a breach, but would be of no account as
leaders.

"Now row along steadily, men," he went on, speaking to the slaves. "We
are still in good time, for it was not an hour from the moment we touched

the island to our departure from it, and much of that time we have gained
by the speed with which you rowed before. At any rate, we shall make out

the island before sunset, and whether we arrive there a little sooner or later
matters little. Harcourt, hand me that wineskin and a goblet. A draught will