ht you had fooled me! But it was you
I chased last night through the streets of the village. You had been
with that foul woman ashore there! I am not going to kill you, because
we're going to die together. But this boy here--I used to call him my
Pascualet--is not to blame. And I'm not going to let him die. He may get
drowned, and that would be almost better for him! But he must have what
chance there is! That life-belt, Tonet! For your own boy, the child of
your treachery and disgrace! You're a dog, but you are also a father!
Hand it over, or I'll cut your throat!"

Tonet smiled an atrocious, cynical smile.

"I don't say he's not mine. But it's everybody for himself!"

He had the life-belt almost on, but he was not quick enough to finish.
His brother was upon him. There was a quick desperate struggle on that
pitching, rolling, wave-washed deck.

Tonet fell on his back. Pascualo had sunk the knife twice into his side.
The Rector's thirst for vengeance had been assuaged!

Blind, not knowing what he was about, he adjusted the life-belt to the
boy's tiny form, picked him up like a bundle of laths, walked astern,
and threw him overboard. He saw him floating there for a second, till
the crest of a great wave caught him.

It had all been the matter of minutes. The crowd on the point of the
Breakwater saw the _Mayflower_ drifting off entirely at the mercy of the
storm. The rain suddenly had ceased, and the lightning-flashes were more
distant now, though the gale still held furious, and the waves were
coming even higher than before. The sailors could not tell, quite, what
was going on on deck; but they saw the Rector throw a large bundle into
the breakers, that lifted it up, and began to toss it shoreward, toward
the rocks.

There was one last cry of horror.

The _Mayflower_ had been caught abeam by a huge breaker, and was being
turned end over end. She was seen for a second, bottom up, and then she
sank, out of sight.

The women crossed themselves. Strong hands laid hold on _sina_ Tona and
Dolores, to keep them from leaping into the sea.

Everybody had guessed what that bundle was, floating out there toward
the shore. "The boy! The boy!" The sailors could see him now in the
life-belt. But he would be smashed against the stones. The two women
were screaming for help, though not knowing how it should come nor from
whom. Could not the child at least be saved! "The boy! The boy!"

A young man volunteered. To his sash