d he pointed
still at the rugged backbone of the islet which ran from the natural
citadel, and descended slowly toward the far end by the sea. The young
sailor stared back, then turned his head in the direction pointed, but
no answering look of intelligence came. But Syd's finger still pointed,
and the man turned his head and stared again.

"Water!" he snarled; "dying--water."

The hand was still extended toward the furrowed ridge with its chaos of
tumbled rocks; and after gazing in the direction once more, the man
uttered a harsh groan, and crawled to the very edge of the rocky
platform, lowered himself over as he clung to the rope-ladder, and would
have fallen headlong had not his hands been cramped now so that the
fingers were hooked, and he descended half-way before his strength
failed, and he fell ten or a dozen feet, rolled over, and struck against
one of the two buckets that lay there close up, as the men had left them
after dipping for sea-water to bathe with, as they could not venture in.

Rogers lay there for a few minutes half-stunned, and with his brow cut,
and bleeding freely. Then he rose to his hands and knees to begin
climbing up to the left, while Syd and Strake, with hot staring eyes,
watched him as he went up slowly and painfully foot by foot.

What for? Syd found himself thinking. Was it to fight back that black
cloud of confusion which would keep coming and going, as now clearly,
now as through a mist, he could see the young sailor climb and crawl
higher and higher, and further away; now he was behind some great rock,
now he was in sight again; now he descended into one of the crevices of
the slope which looked red-hot in the glow of the setting sun. Then
there came a blank, of how long Syd could not tell, for the black cloud
was over him. But his eyes opened wildly again, and he saw that Rogers
was somewhere close by the edge of the great rift where he had stood and
listened, and then it seemed that the man had fallen, for he disappeared
suddenly, and Strake uttered a low harsh groan.

Was it a dream, or was it really the young sailor coming back? He could
not tell; he did not even know that the hoarse, harsh, rattling sound
came from the boatswain who lay by his side; but in an indistinct way he
saw the man coming down quickly till he was where the two buckets stood,
and he shouted something to him whose sound fell like a blow upon his
brain.

All was blank again, and he saw no more