“All right now,” he said.

Karain’s lips moved slightly.  A vivid flash of lightning made the two round stern-ports facing him glimmer like a pair of cruel and phosphorescent eyes.  The flame of the lamp seemed to wither into brown dust for an instant, and the looking-glass over the little sideboard leaped out behind his back in a smooth sheet of livid light.  The roll of thunder came near, crashed over us; the schooner trembled, and the great voice went on, threatening terribly, into the distance.  For less than a minute a furious shower rattled on the decks.  Karain looked slowly from face to face, and then the silence became so profound that we all could hear distinctly the two chronometers in my cabin ticking along with unflagging speed against one another.

And we three, strangely moved, could not take our eyes from him.  He had become enigmatical and touching, in virtue of that mysterious cause that had driven him through the night and through the thunderstorm to the shelter of the schooner’s cuddy.  Not one of us doubted that we were looking at a fugitive, incredible as it appeared to us.  He was haggard, as though he had not slept for weeks; he had become lean, as though he had not eaten for days.  His cheeks were hollow, his eyes sunk, the muscles of his chest and arms twitched slightly as if after an exhausting contest.  Of course it had been a long swim off to the schooner; but his face showed another kind of fatigue, the tormented weariness, the anger and the fear of a struggle against a thought, an idea—­against something that cannot be grappled, that never rests—­a shadow, a nothing, unconquerable and immortal, that preys upon life.  We knew it as though he had shouted it at us.  His chest expanded time after time, as if it could not contain the beating of his heart.  For a moment he had the power of the possessed—­the power to awaken in the beholders wonder, pain, pity, and a fearful near sense of things invisible, of things dark and mute, that surround the loneliness of mankind.  His eyes roamed about aimlessly for a moment, then became still.  He said with effort—­

“I came here . . .  I leaped out of my stockade as after a defeat.  I ran in the night.  The water was black.  I left him calling on the edge of black water. . . .  I left him standing alone on the beach.  I swam . . . he called out after me . . .  I swam . . .”

He trembled from head to foot, sitting very upright and gazing straight before him.  Left whom?  Who called?  We did not know.  We could not understand.  I said at all hazards—­

“Be firm.”

The sound of my voice seemed to steady him into a sudden rigidity, but otherwise he took no notice.  He seemed to listen, to expect something for a moment, then went on—­

“He cannot come here—­therefore I sought you.  You men with white faces who despise the invisible voices.  He cannot abide your unbelief and your strength.”

He was silent for a while, then exclaimed softly—­