g had been
foreseen. From his early years Clubin had had an idea to stake his
reputation for honesty at life's gaming-table; to pass as a man of high
honour, and to make that reputation his fulcrum for other things; to
bide his time, to watch his opportunity; not to grope about blindly, but
to seize boldly; to venture on one great stroke, only one; and to end by
sweeping off the stakes, leaving fools behind him to gape and wonder.
What stupid rogues fail in twenty times, he meant to accomplish at the
first blow; and while they terminated a career on the gallows, he
intended to finish with a fortune. The meeting with Rantaine had been a
new light to him. He had immediately laid his plan--to compel Rantaine
to disgorge; to frustrate his threatened revelations by disappearing; to
make the world believe him dead, the best of all modes of concealment;
and for this purpose to wreck the Durande. The shipwreck was necessary
to his designs. Lastly, he had the satisfaction of vanishing, leaving
behind him a great renown, the crowning point of his existence. As he
stood meditating on these things amid the wreck, Clubin might have been
taken for some demon in a pleasant mood.

He had lived a lifetime for the sake of this one minute.

His whole exterior was expressive of the two words, "At last." A
devilish tranquillity reigned in that sallow countenance.

His dull eye, the depth of which generally seemed to be impenetrable,
became clear and terrible. The inward fire of his dark spirit was
reflected there.

Man's inner nature, like that external world about him, has its electric
phenomena. An idea is like a meteor; at the moment of its coming, the
confused meditations which preceded it open a way, and a spark flashes
forth. Bearing within oneself a power of evil, feeling an inward prey,
brings to some minds a pleasure which is like a sparkle of light. The
triumph of an evil purpose brightens up their visages. The success of
certain cunning combinations, the attainment of certain cherished
objects, the gratification of certain ferocious instincts, will manifest
themselves in sinister but luminous appearances in their eyes. It is
like a threatening dawn, a gleam of joy drawn out of the heart of a
storm. These flashes are generated in the conscience in its states of
cloud and darkness.

Some such signs were then exhibiting themselves in the pupils of those
eyes. They were like nothing else that can be seen shining either above
or