iend, when suddenly I was
startled by a splash and a cry from without. I sprang on deck, and took
in the situation at a glance. Peter was gone! The other men were all
there, on board, looking helplessly at the spot where he had
disappeared, but making no effort to save him. A strong wind was
carrying the junk rapidly forward in spite of a steady current in the
opposite direction, and the low-lying, shrubless shore afforded no
landmark to indicate how far we had left the drowning man behind.

I instantly let down the sail and leapt overboard in the hope of finding
him. Unsuccessful, I looked around in agonising suspense, and saw close
to me a fishing-boat with a peculiar drag-net furnished with hooks,
which I knew would bring him up.

"Come!" I cried, as hope revived in my heart. "Come and drag over this
spot directly; a man is drowning just here!"

"Veh bin" (It is not convenient), was the unfeeling answer.

"Don't talk of _convenience_!" cried I in an agony; "a man is drowning,
I tell you!"

"We are busy fishing," they responded, "and cannot come."

"Never mind your fishing," I said, "I will give you more money than many
a day's fishing will bring; only come--come at once!"

"How much money will you give us?"

"We cannot stay to discuss that now! Come, or it will be too late. I
will give you five dollars" (then worth about thirty shillings in English
money).

"We won't do it for that," replied the men. "Give us twenty dollars, and
we will drag."

"I do not possess so much: do come quickly, and I will give you all I
have!"

"How much may that be?"

“I don't know exactly, about fourteen dollars."

At last, but even then slowly enough, the boat was paddled over, and the
net let down. Less than a minute sufficed to bring up the body of the
missing man. The fishermen were clamorous and indignant because their
exorbitant demand was delayed while efforts at resuscitation were being
made. But all was in vain--life was extinct.

To myself this incident was profoundly sad and full of significance,
suggesting a far more mournful reality. Were not those fishermen
actually guilty of this poor Chinaman's death, in that they had the
means of saving him at hand, if they would but have used them? Assuredly
they were guilty. And yet, let us pause ere we pronounce judgment
against them, lest a greater than Nathan answer, "_Thou art the man_."
Is it so hard-hearted, so wicked a thing to neglect to save the body? Of