"’My hand fell on a table knife’ said she ’I fought him with it—succeeded in cutting him badly about the hands. The blood frightened him; he had to let me go. I’ve never seen a human being in such a dreadful rage. He swore he wouldn’t keep me on board an hour longer’ "The rage had persisted; as soon as the sails had been furled, after dropping the anchor, he had put a boat overboard and bundled her into it, bag and baggage—well he knew that she was in no position to make trouble for him. She had thought of trying to attract the attention of the other vessel, but finally had decided that she had better take her chances on land. She had supposed there were white people ashore; at the landing, where her things had been pitched at her feet, she had asked Halsted the way to the settlement. When he’d told her brutally what an abandoned place it was, she’d suddenly lost heart. It was then that we had heard her cry out. "’Go up to the consulate bungalow’ Halsted had told her ’See the lights? Somebody must live up there’ "So she had climbed the hill, trusting to luck, which had already arranged the scene. It might have been vastly different, you know. Suppose she had found him with the native woman? Well, suppose it—the renunciation would merely have changed hands. Inexorable formula!—for them, one or the other; for him, heads I win, tails you lose" *VIII* Nichols went to the rail, and stood for some time in silence, facing the land. "And I have seen the other" said he slowly "It was about a year later that my course led me again through Sunda Straits, and I arrived at Anjer on another evening of moonlight and stillness and awakened memory. After the anchor was down I ordered a boat to be set overboard, and went ashore in the late evening to revisit the bungalow. As I went up the path, the shadows seemed to start and move about me, and a wandering breeze stirred the palm trees with a quick rustle as of departing feet. I found the wreck of a rattan chair standing on the verandah, pulled it to the railing, and sat there a long while facing the oval of grass flooded with moonlight, the fixed scene, as it were, where the actors of this unseen drama had stalked through their extravagant business and said their futile words. "Nothing had changed; I seemed as if I had left the place but yesterday. I turned to the heavy shadow where I had seen and heard her last, the shadow that must have marked the end of a hillside trail; and it wasn’t surprising to me, but only natural, to see her standing there once more, her form drawn back as if from a sight she didn’t dare behold. In a moment the tense figure moved. She walked like a tiger, with a crouching step of absolute grace, cautious yet unafraid. Crossing the oval, she came directly to the railing. I got up hastily, in excitement and alarm; and we faced each other without speaking for quite a period.