Page:The Song of the Sirens.djvu/259

 them all. And to the left the slopes of Gifetta, rosy in the sun, overlooking everything."

"You have the localities better than I," the Emperor put in. "I know them only as nameless islands and mountains. Go on."

"The flotilla was in a sort of crescent formation, bulged toward us, about two miles from tip to tip and each tip about two miles from the nearest shore. They were all heeling over in our direction, every sail bellying out, every felucca running evenly with every other, a magnificent spectacle. "The instant they sighted us the most amazing alteration in their movement took place. They seemed seized with a mad panic. The feluccas yawed crazily about, rammed each other, ran together by threes and fours, and hung, held by a jumble of shattered masts, intertangled yards and snarled cordage. Those that ran free zigzagged about, now aback, their lateen sails slatting in the wind, now ducking and scooting this way and that.

"The masthead lookout called that all the crews had jumped overboard at once and were swimming back toward the harbor.

"I judged that we could catch up with them and run them down long before they reached it, and my chief pilot agreed. I had detailed Vespillo to act as a reserve and he had aboard