ealize eternity. Cast him down
from these visions suddenly and in their place set up black woods and
the utter darkness of nature impenetrable. Let the exaltation leave
him, the sights fade utterly, the dismal abyss of the nether world
close him in. Awake him from these again and let him reel up and
stagger on and believe that he is sinking down to the eternal sleep.
Such sensations Ken's Island will give him until at last he shall fall;
and lying trance-bound for the rain to beat upon his face, or the sun
to scorch him, or the moon to look down upon his dreams, he shall lie
and know that the world is there, and that nevermore may he have part
or lot in it.

I have set down this account of my own experiences on the island that
you may compare it with the books of others who have since visited this
wonderful place; but I would not have you think that I, and the brave
man who stood at my side, forgot that human errand which put us ashore
in those dismal swamps; or hung back to speak of our own sensations
while others might need us so sorely. If we passed from delirium to
sanity, from the height of hysterical imagination to the depths of
despair and gloom, none the less the faculty of action remained, the
impulse which cried, "Straight on," and left us willing still to dare
the worst if thereby a fellow-creature might be saved. Burning as our
brains were, heavy the limbs, we could still push on across the
meadows, search with our eyes for those poor people we had come out to
save. How long this power of action would remain to us, what supreme
misfortune would end our journey at last, throwing us, it might be, to
the grass, there to sleep and end it all, we would not so much as
consider. Good men were perishing on Ken's Island, and every instinct
said, "You, Jasper Begg, and you, James Nepeen, hold out a hand to
them."

"Do you see anything, captain?" I asked my companion again and again;
"we should be near them now. Do you hear any sound?"

He answered me, gasping for his breath:

"Not a whisper."

"Yonder," I would go on, "yonder by the little wood; they landed there.
Can you get as far, captain?"

"I'll try, by Heaven!" said he, between his teeth.

"They'll not be far from the wood," said I, "that's common sense. Shut
your eyes to all the things you see and don't think about it. It's an
awful place, captain. No living man can picture its fellow."

I waited for him to come up to me, and so placed myself that his