thing but a dense fog rising from the water, hiding the
horizon as completely as the veils of night and making it impossible
for Simon to see more than a hundred yards in front of him. But from
this fog new land-formations continued to emerge; and this seemed to
him to fall so strictly within the domain of the fabulous and the
incredible that he easily imagined them to be rising from the depths
on his approach and assuming form and substance to offer him a
passage.

A little after four o'clock there was a return of the gale, an
offensive of ugly clouds emitting volleys of rain and hail. The wind
made a gap in the clouds, which it drove north and south, and then, on
Simon's right, parallel with a belt of rosy light which divided the
waves from the black sky, the coast-line became visible.

It was a vaguely defined line which might have been taken for a fine
streak of motionless clouds; but he knew its general appearance so
well that he did not hesitate for a moment. It was the cliffs of the
Seine-Inferieurs and the Somme, between Le Treport and Cayeux.

He rested for a few minutes; then, to lighten his outfit, he pulled
off his boots, which were too heavy, and his leather jacket, which was
making him too hot. Then taking his father's wallet out of the jacket,
he found in one of the pockets two biscuits and a stick of chocolate
which he himself had put there, so to speak, unwittingly.

After making a meal of these, he set out again briskly, not with the
cautious gait of an explorer who does not know whither he is going and
who measures his efforts, but at the pace of an athlete who has fixed
his time-table and keeps to it in spite of obstacles and difficulties.
A strange light-heartedness uplifted him. He was glad to expend so
much of the force which he had been storing for all these years and to
expend it on a task of which he knew nothing, but of which he felt the
exceptional greatness. His elbows were well tucked in and his head
thrown back. His bare feet marked the sand with a faint trail. The
wind bathed his face and played in and out of his hair. What joy!

He kept up his pace for nearly four hours. Why should he hold himself
in? He was always expecting the new formation to change its direction
and, bending suddenly to the right, to join the coast of the Somme.
And he went forward in all confidence.

At certain points, progress became arduous. The sea had got up; and
here and there the waves, rushing over thos