Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/57

Rh scathing words and issued from the hall like a whipped puppy. When the last was gone and she was left alone, she suddenly bethought herself of the danger we might incur by delay, rushed to the bridge, and arrived just in time to save us from the death prepared for us not by a remorseless foe, but by our friends.

Meanwhile, we were standing on the further bank, a great gap yawning between us and safety. The engines were bearing down on us fast. What was to be done?

"Gell," said I, "you must swim across. You can do it. The river is wide, and you know I can't swim twenty yards."

"God strike me dead if I leave you," he replied.

"You must," I replied. "Give my love to Aurelia. There must be one man left, if only to protect her. Your hand, William. There is no other way."

"No other way? But there is! See yonder."

I looked. A boat manned by one person, and that a girl, was making its painful way across the swift current. Borne onward for a few yards, then whirled round by an eddy, and ever and anon seemingly on