id stood still, waiting, with his heart fit to break within his
breast, till the man lay down again. Then David was at the door. The
cabin occupied half the ship to the bows; the rest was undecked, with
high bulwarks; a rough ladder of steps led to the gangway. David stood
for a moment in the shadow of the door; but there seemed no one on the
watch without. The pure air and the fresh smell of the sea came to his
senses like a breath of heaven. He stepped swiftly over a coil of
rope; then up the ladder, and plunged noiselessly into the sea.

He swam a few strokes very strongly; and then he looked about him. The
night was as dark as pitch. He could see a dim light from the ship
behind him; the water rose and fell in a slow heavy swell; but which
way the land lay he could not tell. But he said to himself that it was
better to drown and be certainly with God, than in the den of robbers
he had left. So he turned himself round in the water, trying to
remember where the shore lay, but it was all dark, both the sky and
sea, with a pitchy blackness; only the lights of the ship glimmered
towards him like little bright paths across the heaving tide.

Suddenly there came a thing so wonderful that David could hardly
believe he saw truly; a bright eye of light, as it were, opened upon
him in the dark, far off, and hung high in the heavens, like a quiet
star. The radiance of it was like the moon, cold and clear. And though
David could not at first divine whence it came, he did not doubt in
his heart that it was there to guide him; so he struck out towards it,
with long silent strokes. He swam for a long time, the light shining
softly over the water, and seeming to rise higher over his head, while
the glimmering of the ship's lights grew fainter and more murky behind
him. Then he became aware that he was drawing near to the land; great
dark shapes loomed up over his head, and he heard the soft beating of
waves before him. Then he could see too, as he looked upon the light,
that there was a glimmer around it; and he saw that it came from the
edges and faces of rocks that were lit up by the radiance. So he swam
more softly; and presently his foot struck a rock covered with weed;
so he put his feet down, waded in cautiously, and pulling himself up
by the hands found himself on a rocky shore, and knew that it was his
own island.

Then the light above him, as though it had but waited for his safety
to be secured, died softly away, like th