It meant a supreme effort at lifting.

Daylight steeled himself and began.

Something must have snapped, for, though he was unaware of it, the next he knew he was lying doubled on his stomach across the sharp stern of the boat.
Evidently, and for the first time in his life, he had fainted.
Furthermore, it seemed to him that he was finished, that he had not one more movement left in him, and that, strangest of all, he did not care.
Visions came to him, clear-cut and real, and concepts sharp as steel cutting-edges.

He, who all his days had looked on naked Life, had never seen so much of Life's nakedness before.

For the first time he experienced a doubt of his own glorious personality.