upon the
beach thirty paces from the men and Elzevir. Then he left his own
assured salvation, namely the rope, and strode down again into the very
jaws of death to catch me by the hand and set me on my feet. Sight and
breath were failing me; I was numb with cold and half-dead from the
buffeting of the sea; yet his giant strength was powerful to save me
then, as it had saved me before. So when we heard once more the warning
crash and thunder of the returning wave we were but a fathom distant
from the rope. 'Take heart, lad,' he cried; ''tis now or never,' and as
the water reached our breasts gave me a fierce shove forward with his
hands. There was a roar of water in my ears, with a great shouting of
the men upon the beach, and then I caught the rope.

CHAPTER 19

ON THE BEACH

Toll for the brave,
The grave that are no more;
All sunk beneath the wave
Fast by their native shore--_Cowper_

The night was cold, and I had nothing on me save breeches and boots, and
those drenched with the sea, and had been wrestling with the surf so long
that there was little left in me. Yet once I clutched the rope I clung to
it for very life, and in a minute found myself in the midst of the
beachmen. I heard them shout again, and felt strong hands seize me, but
could not see their faces for a mist that swam before my eyes, and could
not speak because my throat and tongue were cracked with the salt water,
and the voice would not come. There was a crowd about me of men and some
women, and I spread out my hands, blindly, to catch hold of them, but my
knees failed and let me down upon the beach. And after that I remember
only having coats flung over me, and being carried off out of the wind,
and laid in warmest blankets before a fire. I was numb with the cold, my
hair was matted with the salt, and my flesh white and shrivelled, but
they forced liquor into my mouth, and so I lay in drowsy content till
utter weariness bound me in sleep.

It was a deep and dreamless sleep for hours, and when it left me, gently
and as it were inch by inch, I found I was still lying wrapped in
blankets by the fire. Oh, what a vast and infinite peace was that, to lie
there half-asleep, yet wake enough to know that I had slipped my prison
and the pains of death, and was a free man here in my native place! At
last I shifted myself a little, growing more awake; and opening my eyes
saw I was not alone, for two men sat at a table by me with glasses and a