Then the Prince stopped and put his child into John's arms.

'Save him,' he said, and fell forward on his face; and John's heart cracked again.

But he went forward in the darkness until the water rose to his waist, and the sand to his knees.

He was close to the farther shore now, but could not reach it unless he dropped one of the children; and this he would not do.

He bent forward, holding out one in each arm, and could just manage to push them up the bank and prop them there with his open hand; and while he bent, the tide rose and his heart cracked for the third time.