ntinued to run aimlessly back and forth,
heedless of my going, slipping and stumbling and often falling, but
never staying my search until the sweat poured from me. And ever as I
ran I kept repeating these words to myself over and over again, viz.,
"Adam's comrade, Nicholas Frant, was cast safe ashore with him!" Thus I
ran to and fro gasping these words to myself until, tripping over a
piece of driftwood I lay bruised and well-nigh spent. Howbeit, I
forced myself up again and re-commenced my search, and this time with
more method, for I swore to myself that I would find her or perish
also. To this end I determined to get me out upon the reef; now to
come thither I must needs climb over certain rocks, so came I thither
and, breathless with haste, made shift to mount these rocks heedless of
bruises or bleeding hands, and reaching the summit at last, paused all
at once.

She lay face down almost below these rocks, outstretched within a
little cove and her long, wet hair wide-tossed like drifted seaweed all
about her. Now, seeing how still she lay, a great sickness seized me
so that I sank weakly to my knees and crouched thus a while, and with
no strength nor will to move. At last, and very slowly, I made my way
a-down the rocks, and being within the little cove, found myself all
trembling and holding my breath. Then, though the soft sand deadened
all sound of my going, I crept forward. So came I where she lay, her
wet draperies clinged fast about her; and standing above this stilly
form I looked down upon her slender shapeliness yet feared to touch
her. And now I saw that one sleeve was torn away and upon her round,
white arm the marks my cruel hands had wrought.

"Damaris!" says I, falling on my knees beside her, and the word was a
groan. And in that moment she raised her head and looked at me, and in
her eyes methought to read wonder and a sudden, great joy:

"Martin!" she whispered, "O thank God!" And so hid her face again.
Now, being yet on my knees, I looked from her to the blue heaven and
round about me like one that wakes upon a new world.

CHAPTER XXV

HOW I WAS HAUNTED OF BLACK BARTLEMY

"Are you hurt?" says I, at last.

"Indeed," she answered, "all over. Yet am I alive and there's the
wonder. The wave cast me into the lagoon and I crept ashore here.
Then methought you surely dead and I alone within these solitudes and
so I swooned, Martin."

"Being afraid of the loneliness?"

"Yes, Mar