etter for you not to
come, Gleameil."

"I am not to be dissuaded," she replied.

He stroked his beard in perplexity. "Is it time to start?"

"It wants four hours to sunset, and we shall need all that."

Maskull sighed. "I'll go to the mouth of the creek, and wait there for
you and the raft. You will wish to make your farewells, Gleameil."

He then clasped Polecrab by the hand. "Adieu, fisherman!"

"You have repaid me well for my answers," said the old man gruffly. "But
it's not your fault, and in Shaping's world the worst things happen."

The eldest boy came close to Maskull, and frowned at him. "Farewell, big
man!" he said. "But guard my mother well, as well as you are well able
to, or I shall follow you, and kill you."

Maskull walked slowly along the creek bank till he came to the bend. The
glorious sunshine, and the sparkling, brilliant sea then met his eyes
again; and all melancholy was swept out of his mind. He continued as far
as the seashore, and issuing out of the shadows of the forest, strolled
on to the sands, and sat down in the full sunlight. The radiance of
Alppain had long since disappeared. He drank in the hot, invigorating
wind, listened to the hissing waves, and stared over the coloured sea
with its pinnacles and currents, at Swaylone's Island.

"What music can that be, which tears a wife and mother away from all she
loves the most?" he meditated. "It sounds unholy. Will it tell me what I
want to know? Can it?"

In a little while he became aware of a movement behind him, and, turning
his head, he saw the raft floating along the creek, toward the open sea.
Polecrab was standing upright, propelling it with a rude pole. He
passed by Maskull, without looking at him, or making any salutation, and
proceeded out to sea.

While he was wondering at this strange behaviour, Gleameil and the boys
came in sight, walking along the bank of the inlet. The eldest-born was
holding her hand, and talking; and the other two were behind. She was
calm and smiling, but seemed abstracted.

"What is your husband doing with the raft?" asked Maskull.

"He's putting it in position and we shall wade out and join it," she
answered, in her low-toned voice.

"But how shall we make the island, without oars or sails?"

"Don't you see that current running away from land? See, he is
approaching it. That will take us straight there."

"But how can you get back?"

"There is a way; but we need not think of that today."