Meanwhile, of all the lingerers on the deck Amid that darkness, only two remained. These, as they might, watched him now bending there In wistful gaze over the vessel's side Downward into the waters weird below: Stephen was one; the other, Shimei. But Shimei had crept later on the deck, When the increasing dark veiled all from view Save what was moving or what stood upright; So he knew not of Stephen now reclined, Motionless in a trance of pleasant dream, There where Eunicé left him, when she too With Rachel from the open night retired. The youth had lapped him in a happy muse Of memory of the things they twain that eve Had shared in converse; it was like twilight Prolonging softer the full light of day. Shimei thought darkly: 'Could yon leaning form Lean farther, and embrace indeed the wave He yearns toward, this enticing murky night! There were redemption ready-wrought for me-- Who might be spared, forsooth, accusing whom His own forestalling conscience had condemned, (So it should look!) and forced him on to die. "Vengeance is mine and recompense," as saith Our Moses, hinting of a moment when "Their foot shall slide." Ha! Ha! It fits the case! "Their foot shall slide!" Feet may be brought to slide! The deck is slippery with the spray; a tip Forward above, with a trip backward, so, From underneath'--and Shimei acted out In pantomimic gesture his quick thought; 'An accidental movement, were it seen, But it would not be seen. A fine dark night, No moon, no stars, and the whole hollow sky Ink-black with clouds that when ere long they break Will spit ink-rain into an inky sea! Finger of God! It were impiety Not to obey a pointing such as this.' His propense thought plunged him a step toward Paul. Stephen hereon, stretched out upon the deck, Marking the sinister action of the man Shadowed upon the dark, a denser dark, Noiselessly gathered up his members all, Ready to rush at need to rescue, yet Reserved, alert, to watch and to await, Like leopard couchant tense in poise to spring. That instant, a new dimness in the dark, A swimming outline, figure of a man Approaching, with a rustle of approach Hinted, no more, amid the rising wind. This Stephen knew, and Shimei, both at once. Shimei recoiled; he thought, 'Well paused for me! I might have been detected, after all!' Then, gliding toward that shadowy moving form, He met--a Roman soldier, front to front, Nigh Stephen where he lay in ambuscade Unpurposed, but now vigilant all ear For what might pass between those men so met. A sudden shift of phase to Shimei's thought, In altered phase persistent still the same. The desperate fancy seized him to essay Corrupting that custodian of Paul.