Guardsman of Gor Read Online Free PDF

closely together. The two ships following the first galley had intended to follow her into our line, exploiting the breach. But now there was no breach. The point of the wedge, harmlessly, save for splinters and paint torn from our hull, was behind us. The two supporting ships ground their hulls together. Burning pitch and arrows rained upon their decks. I heard rams clash to port and starboard. Then one of the supporting galleys was struck in the stern by a following ship, unable to check its momentum. The pirate galleys began to back oars, frantically to extricate themselves, but, clumsily, half swung about, they must accept our fire. Two other ships from be
    hind them, unable to slow themselves sufciently, struck into the milling ships.
    I turned about. The first galley, isolated behind our lines, was trying to swing to the southeast, to avoid the chain and find the open water to the cast. As she did so the Tais, come from our right flank to reinforce the line, circling about her, took her full in the port side. The strike was high, but water poured into her hold. I saw men dive from her decks. She lay then in the water, listing, unmanned. As she lay the rupture in her hull was lifted above the water line. I saw men from the Tais board her, moving about on the tilted deck. Then, in a short time, they returned to their ship.
    "Run flags on the stem-castle lines," called Callimachus. "Blood for Port Cos!"
    There was a cheer from our benches.
    I watched the Tais draw away from the disabled vessel. Then I saw the stern of the vessel swing eccentrically about.
    "She is caught on a bar," said a man near to me.
    "Yes," I said. No longer did she move sluggishly, turning, carried by the current, toward the chain.
    "It is the Tuka," said a man near me.
    "Is that a well-known ship of the Voskjard," I asked.
    "Yes," he said.
    "It is the wedge againl" cried a man.
    I looked out, over the railing, northward. The enemy fleet had reformed.
    The crew of the Tuka had swum west of the chain.
    "They are approaching at only half stroke," said a man.

"They will not repeat their first mistake," said another.
    This time it was their intention to force our line apart with consistent pressure, not as a shattering bolt, but as a flood, a pressing, an avalanche of wood and steel, regulated, controlled, responsive to the tactical situation instant by instant. Not again would the point of the wedge be lost fruitlessly behind our lines, spending itself in vain against emptiness and spray.
    Flags, torn by the wind, snapping, sped to our stem-castle lines. Signal cloths, pennons and squares, in mixed colors and designs, acknowledging these commands, ran fluttering and streaming onto the stem-castle lines of the Tais.
    "She is at full strokel" said a man.
    The Tais, her stern low in the water, her ram half lifted from it, knifed to the northeast.
    "The wedge of the Voskjard approachesl" called an officer on our stem castle.
    "Let us chain the ships together, while we mayl" begged another officer.
    "No," said Callimachus.
    "Look!" cried a man, miserably, clinging to a projection on our stem castle. "Look!" he cried. He was pointing to the east. "The Tais is leaving our lines! The ships of Port Cos attend herl"
    "Our flank is unguarded!" cried a man in fear. There seemed consternation on our benches.
    "The Voskjard is committed to the wedgel" I said to the man next to me.
    "Our flank is in no immediate danger," said he. He set an arrow to the string of a short ship's bow.
    "No!" I cried laughing. "No! Look! It is the flank of the Voskjard which is now unguarded!"
    The Tais and her swift, lean sisters, emerging unexpectedly, circling, from behind our lines, stern quarters low in the water, rams half lifted from the water, wet and glistening in the sun, at full stroke, oars beating, drums pounding, like loosened weapons, sped toward the wedge.
    Our oarsmen stood on their benches cheering.
    The lead ship of the wedge was trying to come about, swinging to