I could row no more.

My bruised and swollen hands could no longer close on the oar handles.

My wrists and arms ached intolerably, and though I had eaten heartily of a twelve-o'clock lunch, I had worked so hard that I was faint from hunger.
I pulled in the oars and bent forward to the line which held the tow.
But Maud's hand leaped out restrainingly to mine.
"What are you going to do ?" she asked in a strained, tense voice.
"Cast it off," I answered, slipping a turn of the rope.
But her fingers closed on mine.
"Please don't," she begged.
"It is useless," I answered.

"Here is night and the wind blowing us off the land." "But think, Humphrey.

If we cannot sail away on the _Ghost_, we may remain for years on the island--for life even.