anger stepped out and
beached his craft above the water's edge. With slow deliberate steps
he went forward till he stood above the grave. There, with his hands
clasped behind him and his head bowed, he waited for a few minutes
listening, half expecting that something would happen. When nothing
stirred, he went upon his knees, as if he prayed, placing his lips so
near to the grave that sometimes they touched the stones and mould;
and so he began to speak to the man imprisoned beneath the ground.

"Strangeways," he said, "you know everything about me now, and you
ought to understand. I want to act fairly by you. I didn't do that in
your lifetime; if I had, you might not now be dead. I ought to have
warned you about the ice at first, and I ought to have told you the
truth about Spurling; then you might have believed me. But I did try
my best to save you in the end. Pere Antoine says that I may get
hanged for your death; but I don't mind that so very much, if I can
only act fairly by you now."

He paused to hear whether there was any sound of movement underground;
when he heard none, he knew that the dead man was listening and
waiting eagerly for what would come next. Crouching still nearer, so
that he might narrow the space between them, "Strangeways, are you
listening?" he said. "We both loved her, and neither of us won her in
this world; but because you are dead, you are nearer to her now than I
am. I want you to promise me to do nothing till I have come."

And still when he halted, waiting for his answer, nothing stirred.
Presently he spoke again. "I have a reason for asking which, if you
remember anything of what you suffered in this life, you should
understand. To save myself from madness, I must have a companion, and
so I am going to marry a woman of this country. In order that I may
live well with her, and even in order to marry her, I must pledge my
word to forget Mordaunt while I am in this world. Now do you
understand? I cannot pledge my word until you have promised me that
you will do nothing until I am also dead." He fell forward over the
grave and lay there silent. His brain had become numb; he could
fashion no more words--perhaps in the interval which elapsed he
slept. Then it seemed to him that the chambers within his brain were
lighted up, so that pressing his face against the crannies and between
the stones he could look right down, and see distinctly the narrow bed
of the grave whereon the body of Stra