Bermuda Islands -- Fiction; Prisoners -- Fiction; Short stories
In the earlier part of the morning, while they were all searching for
their victim, they had brought a boat up into this very inlet among the
rocks; and the same boat had been at hand during the whole day.
Unluckily, before they had come hither, it had been taken round the
headland to a place among the rocks at which a government skiff is always
moored. The sea was still so quiet that there was hardly a ripple on it,
and the boat had been again sent for when first it was supposed that they
had at last traced Aaron Trow to his hiding-place. Anxiously now were
all eyes turned to the headland, but as yet no boat was there.
The two men rose to the surface, each struggling in the arms of the
other. Trow, though he was in an element to which he was not used,
though he had sprung thither as another suicide might spring to certain
death beneath a railway engine, did not altogether lose his presence of
mind. Prompted by a double instinct, he had clutched hold of Morton’s
body when he encountered it beneath the waters. He held on to it, as to
his only protection, and he held on to him also as to his only enemy. If
there was a chance for a life struggle, they would share that chance
together; and if not, then together would they meet that other fate.
Caleb Morton was a very strong man, and though one of his arms was
altogether encumbered by his antagonist, his other arm and his legs were
free. With these he seemed to succeed in keeping his head above the
water, weighted as he was with the body of his foe. But Trow’s efforts
were also used with the view of keeping himself above the water. Though
he had purposed to destroy himself in taking that leap, and now hoped for
nothing better than that they might both perish together, he yet
struggled to keep his head above the waves. Bodily power he had none
left to him, except that of holding on to Morton’s arm and plunging with
his legs; but he did hold on, and thus both their heads remained above
the surface.
But this could not last long. It was easy to see that Trow’s strength
was nearly spent, and that when he went down Morton must go with him. If
indeed they could be separated,—if Morton could once make himself free
from that embrace into which he had been so anxious to leap,—then indeed
there might be a hope. All round that little inlet the rock fell sheer
down into the deep sea, so that there was no resting-place for a foot; it
but round the headlands on either side, even within forty or fifty yards
of that spot, Morton might rest on the rocks, till a boat should come to
his assistance. To him that distance would have been nothing, if only
his limbs had been at liberty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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