a point where
the volcanic hill ran down landward in rounded ridges, and crossed
two or three of these: but no sign of human habitation could I
discern.

"When I descended again to the beach, with the lap of my jumper full
of limes and wild grapes, it was to find the dog stretched beside a
sizable fire and Farrell busy nailing together some lengths of long
timber. I had heard the sound of his hammer from half-way down the
slope.

"'Good Lord, man!' said I, staring. For he had pulled in the boat
and sawn almost the whole of the port-side out of her. 'You have cut
us off now, whatever happens!'

"'You don't imagine,' said he, 'that I'd ever set foot in that
blasted boat again?'

"What is more, he had cut a couple of cloths out of the sail, for a
winding-sheet. . . . But the pot was near to boiling; and after we
had supped on the crayfish and the fruit, he fell to work again,
nailing together a rough coffin. He explained that he had served his
time in quite a humble way before embarking in business, on borrowed
capital, as a tradesman. Then, under the risen moon, by the scarcely
audible plash of the beach, he told me quite a lot about himself and
his early days, as he fashioned a coffin for the woman into whose
arms I had driven him, as I had driven him with her corpse to this
lost isle.

"In the midst of it I said, 'You know, I suppose, that she saved your
life?'

"He checked his hammer midway in a stroke, and stared at me, the
moonlight white on his face.

"'You know,' I repeated, 'that she gave her life to save yours?' and
I told him how. At the end of the tale, if ever hatred shone in a
man's eyes, it shone in Farrell's; and yet there was incredulity in
them too.

"'What!" he gasped. 'And you let her do it, there in front of you,
when with a turn of the hand--O my God!' he broke off. 'I've thought
at times you must be the Devil himself, you Foe: but I never reckoned
you for as bad as all that! The wonder to me is I don't kill you
where you sit.' He clenched the hammer, and twice again he called on
his God. The dog growled.

"'Steady!' said I, showing him the revolver. 'Steady, and sit down.
You can't kill me, my good man, unless you do it in my sleep--against
which I'll take precautions. So you may quit wondering on that
score. . . . And I can't kill you; for you're too precious--doubly
precious now, _having been bought with that price_. . . . Sit down, I
tell you, and order that infernal do