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124 The brave old man took a sudden run and a header from the bank. No ripple or splashing broke that oily blackness as he disappeared, only his loud and agonised shriek as he touched the surface. That shrill shriek made the ordeal seem more horrible than before.

"Be brave, be brave," whispered those who were watching them, with their lamps now burning so dimly.

"Come, Adela," said Philip, clenching his teeth, and clasping her round the waist, he drew her shrinking form towards the jetty flood.

A moment they paused on the brink, and then together, with shut eyes, they made the leap, and, as Captain Nelson had done, felt as if their souls had been torn from their bodies and was escaping in that wild and joint cry, while the waters closed over them.

Once he had read of a man who had fallen into a furnace of molten metal. The papers said the man could not have suffered at all, for those who saw him fall said he was dissolved instantly, leaving not even a trace of his humanity behind.

This fate seemed to have overtaken him now in the quick instant of touching the surface and the sinking or dissolving of his humanity. It was an eternity of agony concentrated into a second, and then came peace unutterable. He and his friend had crossed the black river.

"Ah, mother, how beautiful you are."

It was the clear voice of her child which fell upon their ears as they emerged on the other side, where willing hands were lifting them; and as Philip looked at the girl whose hand the child held, he could hardly believe his senses. It was Adela as she must have