is all like a dim dream when I look back on
it. I had been drinking hard of late, and the two things together fairly
turned my brain. There's something throbbing in my head now, like a
docker's hammer, but that morning I seemed to have all Niagara whizzing
and buzzing in my ears.

"Well, I took to my heels, and I ran after the cab. I had a heavy oak
stick in my hand, and I tell you that I saw red from the first; but as I
ran I got cunning, too, and hung back a little to see them without being
seen. They pulled up soon at the railway station. There was a good crowd
round the booking-office, so I got quite close to them without being
seen. They took tickets for New Brighton. So did I, but I got in three
carriages behind them. When we reached it they walked along the Parade,
and I was never more than a hundred yards from them. At last I saw them
hire a boat and start for a row, for it was a very hot day, and they
thought no doubt that it would be cooler on the water.

"It was just as if they had been given into my hands. There was a bit of
a haze, and you could not see more than a few hundred yards. I hired a
boat for myself, and I pulled after them. I could see the blurr of their
craft, but they were going nearly as fast as I, and they must have been
a long mile from the shore before I caught them up. The haze was like a
curtain all round us, and there were we three in the middle of it. My
God, shall I ever forget their faces when they saw who was in the boat
that was closing in upon them? She screamed out. He swore like a madman,
and jabbed at me with an oar, for he must have seen death in my eyes. I
got past it and got one in with my stick, that crushed his head like an
egg. I would have spared her, perhaps, for all my madness, but she threw
her arms round him, crying out to him, and calling him 'Alec.' I struck
again, and she lay stretched beside him. I was like a wild beast then
that had tasted blood. If Sarah had been there, by the Lord, she should
have joined them. I pulled out my knife, and--well, there! I've said
enough. It gave me a kind of savage joy when I thought how Sarah would
feel when she had such signs as these of what her meddling had brought
about. Then I tied the bodies into the boat, stove a plank, and stood
by until they had sunk. I knew very well that the owner would think that
they had lost their bearings in the haze, and had drifted off out to
sea. I cleaned myself up, got back to land, and joine