"
"I have only you left, and they want to kill you," she said sadly.
"I wish I could come with you," as the dark waters swirled below them.
"It feels terrible to let you go into that all alone."
"It is nothing. The tide is dead slack, and I have these"--swinging the
bladders in her hand--"if I get tired. Oh, if Bern had only taken
them--"
"I will kneel on the ridge and pray for your safety till I see your
light. Dear, God keep you, and bless you for all your goodness and
courage!"
He strained her to him again, as if he could not let her go to that
colder embrace that awaited her below.
"I could kiss the very rocks you have stood on," he said passionately.
She kissed him back and dropped the cloak, waited a second till a wave
had swirled by, then launched into the slack of it, and was gone.
He stood long, peering and listening into the darkness, but heard only
the welter of the water under the black ledges below, and its scornful
hiss as it seethed through the fringing sea-weeds.
Then at last he turned and climbed, slowly and heavily, up to the ridge;
for now he felt the strain of these last full hours, coming on top of
the longer strain of the storm; and this, and the lack of proper
feeding, made him feel weak and empty and weary.
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