Often in looking back at this hour I have marvelled at the strangeness of my behaviour.
Here was I just set free from the certainty of a hideous death, and yet I had lost all joy in my security.

I was more fevered at the thought of Laputa's escape than I had been at the prospect of David Crawfurd's end.
The next thing I knew I was being lifted off the Schimmel by what seemed to me a thousand hands.

Then came a glow of light, a great moon, in the centre of which I stood blinking.

I was forced to sit down on a bed, while I was given a cup of hot tea, far more reviving than any spirits.

I became conscious that some one was holding my hands, and speaking very slowly and gently.
'Davie,' the voice said, 'you're back among friends, my lad.