ght.

I turned, even ran away, at last. I found my boat in the gloaming
where I had left her, safe and sound, except that all the doctor's
good things had been nosed and tumbled by some hungry beast in my
absence. I stood and thought vacantly of Crusoe, and pig, and guns.
But what use to delay? I got in.

If it were true, as the excellent doctor had informed me, that seamen
reported islands not far distant from these shores, chance might bear
me blissfully to one of these. And if not true ... I turned a rather
startled face to the water, and made haste not to think. Fortune
pierces deep, and baits her hooks with sceptics. Away I went, bobbing
mightily over the waves that leapt and wrestled where sea and river
met. These safely navigated, I rowed the great creature straight
forward across the sea, my face towards dwindling land, my prow to
Scorpio.

XVI

_Art thou pale for weariness._

--PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.

The constellations of summer wheeled above me; and thus between water
and starry sky I tossed solitary in my boat. The faint lustre of the
sultry night hung like a mist from heaven to earth. Far away above the
countries I had left perhaps for ever, the quiet lightnings played
innocently in the heights.

I rowed steadily on, guiding myself by some much ruddier star on the
horizon. The pale phosphorescence on the wave, the simple sounds as of
fish stirring in the water--the beauty and wonder of Night's
dwelling-place seemed beyond content of mortality.

I leaned on my oars in the midst of the deep sea, and seemed to hear,
as it were, the mighty shout of Space. Faint and enormous beams of
light trembled through the sky. And once I surprised a shadow as of
wings sweeping darkly across, star on to glittering star, shaking the
air, stilling the sea with the cold dews of night.

So rowing, so resting, I passed the mark of midnight. Weariness began
to steal over me. Between sleep and wake I heard strange cries across
the deep. The thin silver of the old moon ebbed into the east. A chill
mist welled out of the water and shrouded me in faintest gloom.
Wherefore, battling no more against such influences, I shipped my
oars, made my prayer in the midst of this dark womb of Life, and
screening myself as best I could from the airs that soon would be
moving before dawn, I lay down in the bottom of the boat and fell
asleep.

I slept apparently without dream, and woke as it seemed to the sound
of voice