that when a boat went through the surf
there should be some one to watch it, so I walked to the end of the
Point to see the agent put off. He got away safely; and I, seeing
Sooka's boat lying on the beach, and thinking that it would be as well
to have it hauled up under the boat-shed, was on the point of returning
to the factory to give the necessary order, when, to my surprise, I saw
the boat's crew rush down the beach to the boat and begin to push it
toward the sea.

I waved my arms as a signal to them to stop, but they paid no attention
to me; and I saw them run the boat into the water, jump into her, and
pull off, all singing a song to their stroke in their own language,
the sound of which came faintly up to the top of the Point. "Stupid
fellows!" I muttered to myself, "they might have known that the boat
was not wanted;" and I was again about to turn away, when I was suddenly
seized from behind, and carried to the very edge of the cliff, and then
as suddenly released.

I sprang to one side, and turning round saw Jackson, with a look of such
savage fury on his face that I retreated a step or two in astonishment
at him. He perceived my alarm, and burst out into a fit of laughter,
which, instead of reassuring me, had the opposite effect, it was
so demoniacal in character. "Ha! ha!" he laughed again, "are you
frightened?" and advancing toward me, he put his face close to mine,
peering into it with bloodshot eyes, while his breath, reeking of
spirits, poured into my nostrils.

Involuntarily I put up my arm to keep him off. He clutched it, and,
pointing with his other hand to the sea, whispered hoarsely, "What do
you hear of the surf? Will the breakers be heavier before sundown? See
how they begin to curve! Listen how they already thunder, thunder,
on the beach! I tell you they are impatient--they seek some one," he
shouted. "Do you know," he continued, lowering his voice again, and
speaking almost confidentially, "sooner or later some one is drowned
upon that bar?" And even as he spoke a fresh line of breakers arose from
the deep, farther out than any had been before. This much I observed,
but I was too greatly unnerved by the strange manner of Jackson to pay
further heed to the sea. It had flashed across my mind that he was on
the verge of an attack of delirium tremens, from the effects of the
liquor he had been consuming for so long, and the problem was to get him
back to the house quietly.

Suddenly a thought s