w as well as Gregory the hell that
awaited them outside. To accept so terrible an ordeal seemed like a
purification of her dishonor. If she died, she would die unstained; if
she lived, it would be after such a bridal that would obliterate her tie
to the sot below. Then, on the eve of her giving way, as every line in
her body showed her longing, as her head drooped as though to find a
resting place on the breast of the man she loved, she suddenly called up
all her resolution and tore herself free.

"I'm Joe's wife!" she said.

Gregory faltered as he tried again to plead with her; but in his mind's
eye he saw that stiffening corpse below, lying stark and bloody on the
cabin floor.

"You gave me to him," she burst out. "I'm his, Greg. I will not betray
my husband for any man."

Again he besought her to go with him. But the moment of her madness had
passed. She listened unmoved, and when at last he stopped in despair,
she bade him take his boat and go.

He sat down on the rail instead, his eyes defying her.

She stepped aft, and his heart stood still as she seemed on the point of
descending the companion. But she had another purpose in mind. Throwing
aside the gaskets, she stripped the sail covers off the mainsail and
began, with practiced hands, to reef down to the third reef. Then she
went forward and did the same to the forestaysail. A minute later,
hardly knowing why or how, except that he was helping Madge, Gregory,
like a man in a dream, was pulling with her on the halyards of both
sails. The wind thundered in them as they rose; the main boom jerked
violently at the sheet and lashed to and fro the width of the deck; the
anchor chain fretted and sawed in the hawse hole; the whole schooner
strained and creaked and shook to the keelson. Gregory, in amazement,
asked Madge what she was doing.

"Going to sea, Greg," she said.

"Alone?" he cried. "Alone?"

"Joe and I," she said.

It was on his tongue to tell her Joe was dead; but, though he tried, he
could not do so. It wasn't in flesh and blood to tell her he had killed
her husband. He could only look at her helplessly, and say over and
over again, "To sea!"

"Greg," she said, "I mean to leave you while I am brave--while I am yet
able to resist--while I can still remember I am Joe's wife!"

"And drown," he said.

"What do I care if I do?" she returned. "What do I care for anything?"

"If it's to be one or the other," he said, "I'll go myself. With my big