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Then, how long after I could not tell, there was water on my face, the blue sky and the blue tide were spinning round they spun swiftly, then slowly, then stood still. There was a fierce pain stounding in my head, and a voice said "That good oar-stroke will learn you to steal boats!"
And with that he opened the door quickly, and shut himself out into the tempest once more, making his way by the lantern's aid to the boat-house at the landing, where he helped himself to what he needed, and was soon pulling up the creek. Luckily there was no current against him, for it was sickening work making the oar-stroke with that hurt in his shoulder.
His foolish pride, his false sense of shame at changing his hasty plan to desert, his bitter feeling toward the others, gradually disappeared. Every oar-stroke brought him not only nearer the island, but also nearer a sane, wholesome view of life itself.
“You got to set mighty still in this pirogue,” said Grégoire, as with a long oar-stroke he pulled out into mid stream. “Yes, I know,” answered Melicent complacently, arranging herself opposite him in the long narrow boat: all sense of danger which the situation might arouse being dulled by the attractiveness of a new experience.
In the stern sheets ONE is standing, Though their eyes perceive him not; But a curdling horror creepeth Thro' their veins, with icy darts, And each hurried oar-stroke keepeth Time with their o'er-labouring hearts! Heavy seems their boat returning, Weighted with a world of care! Oh, ye blind ones none discerning WHAT the spectral freight ye bear.
It is running the gauntlet, with apparently a very poor chance of running it safely. The failure of an oar-stroke, a retarding whiff of wind, may bring death to those in the gig, or capture, which is the same. Yet they see life beyond, if they can but reach it, life in a breeze, the "sough" on the water, of which Seagriff spoke. It is scarcely two cables' length ahead. Oh, that it were but one!
In a moment his eyes gleamed, his hand pointed out into the distance. "A ship! a ship!" he cried. "My friends, row! row hard!" Not one of the rowers turned his head not an oar-stroke must be lost. Paganel alone rose, and turned his telescope to the point indicated. "Yes," said he, "a ship! a steamer! they are under full steam! they are coming to us! Found now, brave comrades!"
Then came a few cries of "Bis, Bis!" from a neighboring hotel, a brief clapping of hands, the sound of a handful of coppers rattling into the boat, and the oar-stroke of some gondolier making ready to turn away. "Sing the Camesella," ordered some voice with a foreign accent. "No, no! Santa Lucia." "I want the Camesella." "No! Santa Lucia. Hi! sing Santa Lucia d'you hear?"
Weakened as they were, by long suffering and starvation, they had a tough struggle to hold the pinnace as it were in statu quo all the tougher from the disproportion between such a heavy craft and the light oar-stroke of which her reduced and exhausted crew were capable.
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