"god keep you from the she-wolf, and from your heart's deep desire!"
the words were in my ears again as we went flying on toward the narrows—with the reflection of the flame in the light-house making a broad bright path for us, and the flame itself rising high before us against the cloud-rack like a ball of fire. but god was not with me then, and i gave those warning words no heed. i was drunk with the gladness that came to me when magali made her choice between us; and all that i thought was that even if we did go down together, out there in the gulf of fos, i still would be keeping her from jan and holding her[164] for my own. that there might be any other ending for us never crossed my mind.
jan did not think, i suppose, that i would dare to go outside the harbour. he was in a rage too, no doubt; but, still, he must have been a good deal cooler than i was—for a rage of hate does not boil in the very bones of a man, as a rage of love does—and so cool enough to know that it was sheer craziness to take a boat out into that sea. what i meant to do must have come to him with suddenness—as we drew so close to the light-house that the flame no longer was reflected ahead of us, and the narrows were open over my starboard bow, and i let the boat fall off from the wind and headed her into the broken water made by the inroll of half-spent waves. in my run close-hauled i had dropped him, but not so much as i thought i should, and as i came on the wind again—and hung for a moment before gathering fresh headway—he ranged up once more within hail.
"where are you going? are you crazy?" he called out—and though he must have shouted with all the strength of his big lungs his voice came thin through the wind to us, and broken by the pounding of the sea.
"where you won't dare to follow!" i called[165] back to him—and we went rushing on below the big old fort, that carries the light on its tower, through the short passage between the harbour and the gulf of fos.
something he answered, but what it was i do not know: for as we cleared the shelter of the fort—but while the tail of rock beyond it still was to windward, so that i could not luff—down with a crash on us came the gale. i could only let fly the sheet—but even with the sheet all out over we went until the sail was deep in the water, and over the leeward gunwale the waves came hissing in. i thought that there was the end of it; but the boat had such way on her that even on her beam ends and with the sail dragging she went on until we had cleared the rocks; and then i luffed her and she rose slowly, and for the moment was safe again with her nose in the wind.
magali's face was dead white—like a dead woman's face, only for her shining eyes. she fell to leeward as the boat went over—i could not spare a hand to save her—and struck hard against the gunwale. when the boat righted and she got up again her forehead was bleeding. on her white face the blood was like a black stain. but she put her hand on mine and[166] said: "i am not frightened, marius. i love you!"
jan was close aboard again. as our way had deadened he had overhauled us; and because he saw what had happened to my boat he was able to bring his boat through the narrows without going over.
"marius! marius! for god's sake, for magali's sake, put about!" he shouted. "it is the only chance to save her. put about, i say!"
he was only a little way to leeward of us, but i barely made out his words. the wind was roaring past us, and the waves were banging like cannon on the rocks close by.
what he said was the truth, and i knew it. i knew that the gale was only just beginning, and that no boat could live through it for another hour. and then one of the devils loose on that all souls eve, or perhaps it was my own devil inside of me, put a new evil thought into my heart: making clear to me how i might get rid of jan for good and all, and without its ending in my losing my head or in my losing magali by being sent overseas. it was a chance, to be sure, and full of danger. but just then i was ready for any danger or for any chance.
"the others were upcast on the rocks"
[167] "lie down in the bottom of the boat, magali," i called sharply. "that is the safest place for you. we are going about."
i spoke the truth to magali; but, also, i did not want her to see what happened. she did what i told her to do, and then i began to wear the boat around. how i did it without swamping, i do not know. perhaps the devils of all souls eve held up my mast through the black moments while we lay wallowing in the trough of the sea. but i did do it; and when i was come about i headed straight for jan's boat—lying dead to leeward of me, not twenty yards away. the clouds thinned suddenly and almost the full light of the moon was with us. we could see each other's faces plainly—and in mine he saw what i meant to do.
"it will be all of us together, marius!" he called to me. "do you want to murder magali too?"
but i did not believe that it would be all of us together: for i knew that his boat was an old one, and that mine was new and strong. and, also, the devils had me in their hold. the gale was behind me, driving me down upon him like a thunder-bolt. as i shot close to him the moon shone out full for a moment through a[168] rift in the clouds. in that moment i saw his face clearly. the moonlight gleamed on it. it was a ghastly dead white. but i do not suppose that it was for himself that he was afraid. jan was not a coward, or he would not have jumped after me when i was drowning in the stormy sea.
once more he called to me. "marius! for the sake of magali—"
and then there was a crashing and a rending of planks as i shot against his boat, and a sudden upspringing of my own boat under me. and after that, for a long while, a roaring of water about me, and my own body tumbled and thrust hither and thither in it, and at last a blow which seemed to dash me down into a vast black depth that was all buzzing with little blazing stars.
but the others were upcast on the rocks dead.
