uspicious and attentive. A
slight grating noise, then the dry sound as of two pieces of wood struck
against each other. Somebody was about to land! He took up an armful of
brushwood, and, without taking his eyes from the path, held it over the
embers of his fire. He waited, undecided, and saw something gleam
amongst the bushes; then a white figure came out of the shadows and
seemed to float towards him in the pale light. His heart gave a great
leap and stood still, then went on shaking his frame in furious beats. He
dropped the brushwood upon the glowing coals, and had an impression of
shouting her name--of rushing to meet her; yet he emitted no sound, he
stirred not an inch, but he stood silent and motionless like chiselled
bronze under the moonlight that streamed over his naked shoulders. As he
stood still, fighting with his breath, as if bereft of his senses by the
intensity of his delight, she walked up to him with quick, resolute
steps, and, with the appearance of one about to leap from a dangerous
height, threw both her arms round his neck with a sudden gesture. A
small blue gleam crept amongst the dry branches, and the crackling of
reviving fire was the only sound as they faced each other in the
speechless emotion of that meeting; then the dry fuel caught at once, and
a bright hot flame shot upwards in a blaze as high as their heads, and in
its light they saw each other's eyes.

Neither of them spoke. He was regaining his senses in a slight tremor
that ran upwards along his rigid body and hung about his trembling lips.
She drew back her head and fastened her eyes on his in one of those long
looks that are a woman's most terrible weapon; a look that is more
stirring than the closest touch, and more dangerous than the thrust of a
dagger, because it also whips the soul out of the body, but leaves the
body alive and helpless, to be swayed here and there by the capricious
tempests of passion and desire; a look that enwraps the whole body, and
that penetrates into the innermost recesses of the being, bringing
terrible defeat in the delirious uplifting of accomplished conquest. It
has the same meaning for the man of the forests and the sea as for the
man threading the paths of the more dangerous wilderness of houses and
streets. Men that had felt in their breasts the awful exultation such a
look awakens become mere things of to-day--which is paradise; forget
yesterday--which was suffering; care not for to-morr