For at the moment a cry rang loud in my ear: I knew the voice; and though I kept my foot on Pierre's pistol, yet I turned my head.

And on the instant the fellow sprang to his feet, and, with an agility that I could not have matched, started running across the sands toward the Mount.

Before I had realized what he was about, he had thirty yards' start of me.

I heard the water rushing in now; he must wade deep, nay, he must swim to win the Mount.

But from me he was safe, for I was no such runner as he.