almost to drop the basket as she set it
down. The silent, white thing on the board brought an exclamation of
fear from her. With horror settling deep in her eyes she backed against
the door. Did the sheet cover death? No; for Ezra had been carried to
his grave the day before. The thought freed her from a terror that had
gripped her senses at first. She took two steps forward, bent down and
looked under the board. Little streams of water had made dark tracks
across the hut floor. The corners of the sheet were drenched through.
This sent Tess back once more to the door. Would she dare lift the
sheet? Controlling her fear by an effort, Tess gathered her courage
together and crept again to the long board. With shaking fingers, she
lifted the cloth, and drew it back gently. Then a horrified cry fell
sharply from her lips, and she dropped it. Ben Letts and Myra Longman,
hugged in each other's arms, lay dead before her.

Fascinated and trembling, she stood considering the livid squatters, no
sound, after the first cry, issuing from her pale lips. The dead faces
were so close to each other that a human hand could not pass between
them. Upon the plain face of Myra rested a peaceful expression, as if
she possessed a quietude she had never known before. Her eyes were
closed, and one arm was tightly clasped about Ben's neck--the other
about his waist. The storm had loosened the meager hair, had flung it in
disorder over the fisher-girl's shoulders. Ben's brown teeth gleamed
dark; the drawn lips were stretched wide, as if a pain, dreadful and
torturing, had opened them never to be closed again. His two huge arms,
twisted about the frail frame of the girl, were locked together by the
horny fingers. To Tessibel it seemed that Myra smiled faintly in the
possession of her longed-for happiness. She had Ben Letts at last, and
forever--he was her gift of the storm, the eternal gift of a wild night.
Myra had sought, and had found him.

The shanty door pushed open. Like one in a dream, Tess was still looking
down upon the dead. Lifting her gaze, she saw Satisfied watching her,
his eyes glowing with subdued pain.

"Myry air dead," he said, in a low voice, coming forward.

"Ben Letts, too," added the squatter girl.

"And the brat," finished Longman.

Tess, startled, lifted up her head.

"The brat! I had forgot him," she muttered. "He air dead, too?"

"Yep. He air here."

Longman drew down the sheet still further, exposing the lifeles