I awakened at last to a confused memory only, recalling how I had leapt short and fallen into the steaming water, which, when it reached that place, must have cooled. Vaguely I remembered how it had swept me down, and of a half-stunned instinctive effort to regain my feet, but of how I got out, or whether I had struggled long in the water, or been able to wade down it, and so escape the danger of the sand, I could not recall with certainty. I think I must have been on the sand for the last few yards, or I should have been swept over the edge by the stream, which fell sheer five hundred feet into the sea beneath. For I was lying on a level opal path such as I had traversed previously, with this difference only, that the cultivated ground sloped upward behind me, and the cliff upon the other side sank steeply to the sea. The sun was still hot,--more so on this lower level than on the higher ground I had left,--and it had dried me while I slept, but I was stiff with wounds and exhaustion, and faint with hunger, and I found that I could only stand with difficulty. My boots were soaked with blood, and the laces were torn away, so that I had to use some string from my little store of necessities with which to fasten them. If I wished to reach the end of my journey alive I knew that I must do so quickly; but I looked round in vain for any path to help me. Beneath me now was the unchanging sea, blue and smooth, with a touch of white where the ground shallowed it. Three miles out, it may be, showed the long line of rocks for which I had been told to look. Beyond, I knew, must be the grey beaches which I was seeking. But how could I cross the intervening water? It was a difficulty which might not have occurred to a creature no more at home on land than in the water, or perhaps less so. But I was not gilled or web-footed. Sign of life there was none. Not even a bird was winging across the unclouded blue. Even to descend the cliff was impossible. I might explore the path either to right or left, and with no choice between them, for it ran straight on as far as I could see in either direction, and the cliff-wall showed no change. And then my eyes were attracted by a dark spot, a blur,--a slowly lengthening blur, which came from the black rocks, and was gradually stretching itself toward me over the water. My perception was quickened by past experience. Here must be another invisible bridge, by which something large and formidable was crossing toward me. In fact, as I quickly proved, the bridge stretched out straight before the place where I was seated, and I had only to remain, and whatever was coming must inevitably encounter me. Almost too worn for fear, and recognising the futility of evasion, I resolved to do so. I had arrived at so low a point that only active help could aid me. If that which approached were hostile or indifferent the result would be similar. So I sat and waited.