Five minutes before it occurred he would have said such a thing was impossible.

It was merely the powerful impulse of self-protection that had caused him to strike with such deadly effect, and he was sorry.

The man, beyond all doubt, was a robber and murderer who had forfeited his life a dozen times, and still he was sorry.

It was a tragedy to him to take the life of any one, no matter how evil the fallen might be.
He went back to the house, brought a shovel, one of the numerous ship's stores, and buried the body at once high up the beach where the greatest waves could not reach it and wash it away.

He did his task to the rumble of thunder and the flash of lightning, but, when he finished it, dawn came and then the storm that had threatened but that had never burst passed away.