(ragged the dinghy near the water with an idea of

towing away somewhere, tmt had desisted partly at [.he whisper of lingering hope that Nostromo would irn, partly from conviction of utter usclessness of effort. Now she wanted only a slight shove to be afloat. He had eaten a little every day after the Bit, and had some muscular strength left yet. Tak- up the oars slowly, he pulled away from the cliff the Great Isabel, that stood behind him warm with Bnshine, as if with the heat of life, bathed in a ru h from head to foot as if in a radiance of hope and He pulled straight towards the setting sun. ben the gulf had grown dark, he ceased rowing and png the sculls in. The hollow clatter they made m (falling was the loudest noise he had ever heard in his e. It was a revelation. It seemed to recall him from far away. Actually the thought, "Perhaj- I ay sleep to-night," passed through his mind. But he did not believe it. He believed in nothing; and he remained sitting on the thwart. The dawn from behind the mountains put a gleam into his unwinking eyes. After a clear daybreak the sun appeared splendidly above the peaks of the range. The great gulf burst into a glitter all around the l>oat; and in this glory of merciless solitude the silence ap- peared before him, stretched taut like a dark, thin string. His eyes looked at it while, without haste, he shifted his seat from the thwart to the gunwale. They look- ed at it fixedly, while his hand, feeling about his w. unbuttoned the flap of the leather case, drew the re-

volver, cocked it, brought it forward pointing at his