Dominic went forward.  He paused to look down at Cesar, who, as I have said before, was lying full length face down by the foremast, then stepped over him, and dived out of my sight under the foresail.  I saw nothing ahead.  It was impossible for me to see anything except the foresail open and still, like a great shadowy wing.  But Dominic had his bearings.  His voice came to me from forward, in a just audible cry: 

“Now, signorino!”

I bore on the tiller, as instructed before.  Again I heard him faintly, and then I had only to hold her straight.  No ship ran so joyously to her death before.  She rose and fell, as if floating in space, and darted forward, whizzing like an arrow.  Dominic, stooping under the foot of the foresail, reappeared, and stood steadying himself against the mast, with a raised forefinger in an attitude of expectant attention.  A second before the shock his arm fell down by his side.  At that I set my teeth.  And then—­

Talk of splintered planks and smashed timbers!  This shipwreck lies upon my soul with the dread and horror of a homicide, with the unforgettable remorse of having crushed a living, faithful heart at a single blow.  At one moment the rush and the soaring swing of speed; the next a crash, and death, stillness—­a moment of horrible immobility, with the song of the wind changed to a strident wail, and the heavy waters boiling up menacing and sluggish around the corpse.  I saw in a distracting minute the foreyard fly fore and aft with a brutal swing, the men all in a heap, cursing with fear, and hauling frantically at the line of the boat.  With a strange welcoming of the familiar I saw also Cesar amongst them, and recognised Dominic’s old, well-known, effective gesture, the horizontal sweep of his powerful arm.  I recollect distinctly saying to myself, “Cesar must go down, of course,” and then, as I was scrambling on all fours, the swinging tiller I had let go caught me a crack under the ear, and knocked me over senseless.

I don’t think I was actually unconscious for more than a few minutes, but when I came to myself the dinghy was driving before the wind into a sheltered cove, two men just keeping her straight with their oars.  Dominic, with his arm round my shoulders, supported me in the stern-sheets.

We landed in a familiar part of the country.  Dominic took one of the boat’s oars with him.  I suppose he was thinking of the stream we would have presently to cross, on which there was a miserable specimen of a punt, often robbed of its pole.  But first of all we had to ascend the ridge of land at the back of the Cape.  He helped me up.  I was dizzy.  My head felt very large and heavy.  At the top of the ascent I clung to him, and we stopped to rest.