"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 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 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 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.
[Illustration: "THE OTHERS WERE UPCAST ON THE ROCKS"]
"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 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.