Yet once I clutched the rope I clung to
it for very life, and in a minute found myself in the midst of the
beachmen. I heard them shout again, and felt strong hands seize me, but
could not see their faces for a mist that swam before my eyes, and could
not speak because my throat and tongue were cracked with the salt water,
and the voice would not come. There was a crowd about me of men and some
women, and I spread out my hands, blindly, to catch hold of them, but my
knees failed and let me down upon the beach. And after that I remember
only having coats flung over me, and being carried off out of the wind,
and laid in warmest blankets before a fire. I was numb with the cold, my
hair was matted with the salt, and my flesh white and shrivelled, but
they forced liquor into my mouth, and so I lay in drowsy content till
utter weariness bound me in sleep.
It was a deep and dreamless sleep for hours, and when it left me, gently
and as it were inch by inch, I found I was still lying wrapped in
blankets by the fire. Oh, what a vast and infinite peace was that, to lie
there half-asleep, yet wake enough to know that I had slipped my prison
and the pains of death, and was a free man here in my native place! At
last I shifted myself a little, growing more awake; and opening my eyes
saw I was not alone, for two men sat at a table by me with glasses and a
bottle before them.
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