talk with the men,
following them about and asking aimless questions, until they began to
give him short answers. Where were his pride and his serene
superiority to the friendship or enmity of his race? where his
philosophic self-criticism and fanciful badinage? his resolute,
conquering eyes? his bearing of graceful, careless authority? Had all
these attributes been packed in his haversack, and cast with that upon
the waters? and would they, no more than he to whose care they had
been intrusted, ever return?

With each new hour, morning seemed farther off. In his objectless
wanderings, Helwyse came to the well of the engine-room and hung over
it, gazing at the bright, swift-sliding machinery, studying the parts,
tracing the subtle transmission of force from piece to piece. Here at
last was companionship for him! The engine was a beautiful
combination,--so polished, effective, and logical; like the minds of
some philosophers, moving with superhuman regularity and power, but
lifeless!

Helwyse watched it long, till finally its monotony wearied him. It was
doing admirable work, but it never swerved from its course at the call
of sentiment or emotion. Its travesty of life was repulsive. Machinery
is the most admirable invention of man, but is modelled after no
heavenly prototype, and will have no part in the millennium. It seems
to annul space and time, yet gives us no taste of eternity. Man lives
quicker by it, but not more. With another kind of weapon must the true
victory over matter be achieved!

XII.

MORE VAGARIES.

Most benign and beautiful was the morning. The "Empire State" emerged
from the fog and left it, a rosy cloud, astern. The chasing waves
sparkled and danced for joy. The sun was up, fresh and unstained as
yesterday. Night, that had changed so much, had left the sun undimmed.
With the same power and brightness as for innumerable past centuries,
his glorious glance colored the gray sky blue. Helwyse--he was at the
stern taffrail again--looked at the marvellous sphere with unwinking
eyes, until it blurred and swam before him, and danced in colored
rings. It warmed his face, but penetrated no deeper. Looking away,
black suns moved everywhere before his eyes, and the earth looked dim
and shabby, as though blighted by a curse.

Helwyse had not slept, partly from disinclination to the solitude of
his berth, partly because the thought of awakening dismayed him.
Nevertheless, he could scarcely beli