Yet he had leapt, and, before heaven, I feared that I had killed him.

If it were so, I must set Barbara in safety, and then follow him where he was gone; there would be no place for me among living men, and I had better choose my own end than be hunted to death like a mad dog.

These thoughts spun through my brain as my arms drove the blades into the water, on an aimless course through the mist, till the mass of the ship utterly disappeared, and we three were alone on the sea.

Then the fear overcame me.

I rested on my oars, and leaning over to where Barbara sat in the stern, I shaped with awe-struck lips the question--"Is he dead?
My God, is he dead ?" She sat there, herself, as it seemed, half-dead.