A Voyage to Arcturus eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 355 pages of information about A Voyage to Arcturus.

A Voyage to Arcturus eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 355 pages of information about A Voyage to Arcturus.

Gleameil bent down, and kissed him.  “To the Island.”

“Well then, if you don’t come back by tomorrow morning, I will go and look for you.”

Maskull grew more and more uneasy in his mind.  “This seems to me to be a man’s journey,” he said.  “I think it would be better for you not to come, Gleameil.”

“I am not to be dissuaded,” she replied.

He stroked his beard in perplexity.  “Is it time to start?”

“It wants four hours to sunset, and we shall need all that.”

Maskull sighed.  “I’ll go to the mouth of the creek, and wait there for you and the raft.  You will wish to make your farewells, Gleameil.”

He then clasped Polecrab by the hand.  “Adieu, fisherman!”

“You have repaid me well for my answers,” said the old man gruffly.  “But it’s not your fault, and in Shaping’s world the worst things happen.”

The eldest boy came close to Maskull, and frowned at him.  “Farewell, big man!” he said.  “But guard my mother well, as well as you are well able to, or I shall follow you, and kill you.”

Maskull walked slowly along the creek bank till he came to the bend.  The glorious sunshine, and the sparkling, brilliant sea then met his eyes again; and all melancholy was swept out of his mind.  He continued as far as the seashore, and issuing out of the shadows of the forest, strolled on to the sands, and sat down in the full sunlight.  The radiance of Alppain had long since disappeared.  He drank in the hot, invigorating wind, listened to the hissing waves, and stared over the coloured sea with its pinnacles and currents, at Swaylone’s Island.

“What music can that be, which tears a wife and mother away from all she loves the most?” he meditated.  “It sounds unholy.  Will it tell me what I want to know?  Can it?”

In a little while he became aware of a movement behind him, and, turning his head, he saw the raft floating along the creek, toward the open sea.  Polecrab was standing upright, propelling it with a rude pole.  He passed by Maskull, without looking at him. or making any salutation, and proceeded out to sea.

While he was wondering at this strange behaviour, Gleameil and the boys came in sight, walking along the bank of the inlet.  The eldest-born was holding her hand, and talking; and the other two were behind.  She was calm and smiling, but seemed abstracted.

“What is your husband doing with the raft?” asked Maskull.

“He’s putting it in position and we shall wade out and join it,” she answered, in her low-toned voice.

“But how shall we make the island, without oars or sails?”

“Don’t you see that current running away from land?  See, he is approaching it.  That will take us straight there.”

“But how can you get back?”

“There is a way; but we need not think of that today.”

“Why shouldn’t I come too?” demanded the eldest boy.

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Project Gutenberg
A Voyage to Arcturus from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.