ill a chance."

The man gazed up blankly.

"We are in Mazda's hands," he answered in foreign accent. "It is
manifestly his will that we should pass now the Chinvat bridge. We are
helpless. Where is the pinnace?"

Glaucon dragged him roughly to his feet.

"I do not know your gods. Do not speak of their will to destroy us till
the destruction falls. Do you love this woman?"

"Save her, let me twice perish."

"Rouse yourself, then. One hope is left!"

"What hope?"

"A raft. We can cast a spar overboard. It will float us. You look
strong,--aid me."

The man rose and, thoroughly aroused, seconded the Athenian intelligently
and promptly. The lurches of the merchantman told how close she was to her
end. One of the seamen's axes lay on the poop. Glaucon seized it. The
foremast was gone and the mainmast, but the small boat-mast still stood,
though its sail had blown to a thousand flapping streamers. Glaucon laid
his axe at the foot of the spar. Two fierce strokes weakened so that the
next lurch sent it crashing overboard. It swung in the maelstrom by its
stays and the halyards of the sail. Tossing to and fro like a bubble, it
was a fearful hope, but a louder rumbling from the hold warned how other
hope had fled. The Barbarian recoiled as he looked on it.

"It can never float through this storm," Glaucon heard him crying between
the blasts, but the Athenian beckoned him onward.

"Leap!" commanded Glaucon; "spring as the mast rises on the next wave."

"I cannot forsake her," called back the man, pointing to the woman, who
lay with flying hair between the capstans, helpless and piteous now that
her lover was no longer near.

"I will provide for her. Leap!"

Glaucon lifted the woman in his arms. He took a manner of pride in showing
the Barbarian his skill. The man looked at him once, saw he could be
trusted, and took the leap. He landed in the water, but caught the
sail-cloth drifting from the mast, climbed beside it, and sat astride. The
Athenian sprang at the next favoring wave. His burden made the task hard,
but his stadium training never stood in better stead. The cold water
closed around him. The wave dragged down in its black abyss, but he struck
boldly upward, was beside the friendly spar, and the Barbarian aided him
to mount beside him, then cut the lashings to the _Solon_ with the dagger
that still dangled at his belt. The billows swept them away just as the
wreck reared wildly, and bow foremost plunged int