ea facing him! His disappointment was not unmixed with anger. Was
this then the limit of his journey and were all these convulsions of
nature to end merely in the creation of a peninsula cut off in this
meaningless fashion?

But, on scanning from the sloping shore the waves tossing their foam
to where he stood, he perceived at some distance a darker mass, which
gradually emerged from the mist; and he felt sure that this was a
continuation of the newly-created land, beyond a depression covered by
the sea:

"I must get across," said Simon.

He removed his clothes, made them into a bundle, tied it round his
neck and entered the water. For him the crossing of this strait, in
which, besides, he was for some time able to touch bottom, was mere
child's-play. He landed, dried himself and resumed his clothes.

A very gentle ascent led him, after some five hundred yards, to a
reef, overtopped by actual hills of sand, but of sand so firm that he
did not hesitate to set foot on it. He therefore climbed till he
reached the highest crest of these hills.

And it was here, at this spot--where a granite column was raised
subsequently, with an inscription in letters of gold: two names and a
date--it was here, on the 4th of June, at ten minutes past six in the
evening, above a vast amphitheatre girt about with sand-hills like the
benches of a circus, it was here that Simon Dubosc at last saw,
climbing to meet him, a man.

He did not move at first, so strong was his emotion. The man came on
slowly, sauntering, as it were, examining his surroundings and picking
his way. When at last he raised his head, he gave a start of surprise
at seeing Simon and then waved his cap. Then Simon rushed towards him,
with outstretched arms and an immense longing to press him to his
breast.

At a distance the stranger seemed a young man. He was dressed like a
fisherman, in a brown canvas smock and trousers. His feet were bare;
he was tall and broad-shouldered. Simon shouted to him:

"I've come from Dieppe. You, what town do you come from? Did you take
long to get here? Are you alone?"

He could see that the fisherman was smiling and that his tanned,
clean-shaven face wore a frank and happy expression.

They met and clasped hands; and Simon repeated:

"I started from Dieppe at one in the morning. And you? What port do
you come from?"

The man began to laugh and replied in words which Simon could not
understand. He did not understand them, thoug