Still the boat hung there in the darkness.  What could be done?  The waves rolled beneath, the wind moaned in the rigging.

“We might risk one more, sir,” came from the boat.

The captain looked at Chester, big, strong, full of youth, and then at the slender, gray-haired man.  What a pity, and yet he knew the younger man would have to remain.  That is the law of the sea.

“I’ll not go,” said the father.  “You go, Chester.”

“No, no; we’ll manage somehow; but you must take the chance.  Here, help him in.”

Captain Brown stood by with lifted lantern.  He did not dictate which of the two should go.  He had no need of that.  He saw Chester lift the old man in his arms, hold him for an instant close to him, kiss him and murmur, “Goodby father, and God bless and preserve you”—­then he handed him over to outstretched hands in the boat.

Captain Brown and Chester Lawrence stood by the railing and watched the boat lowered.  Then when they knew it was safely riding the waves, they turned to each other.

“Where is your life-belt?” asked the Captain.  “Get it, and put it on.”

“Is there a chance?”

“There is always a chance.  Come.  We shall go together, one way or another—­the way God wills.”

They walked along the slanting deck down to where Lucy lay on the couch in the smoking room.  Chester did not notice the life-belt on the table, but he lifted a lantern to Lucy’s face, kneeled by it, and kissed it tenderly.  “Lucy,” he said, “my sweetheart, where are you?  Don’t you want me to come too?” He stroked the still face, and smoothed back the hair as he was wont.  “Aren’t you afraid in that new world to which you have gone—­aren’t you as lonesome as—­I am?  O Lucy, Lucy!”

“Come put on this belt,” said the captain, touching him on the shoulder.

“I’m coming with you, Lucy,” continued the young man.  “Nothing shall part us—­as I have told you—­we two,—­O, my God, what can I do?”

The captain led Chester away from the dead, out to the open deck, and buckled around him a life-belt.  “Wait here” said the officer.  “There is a chance—­I’m going to see.  I’ll be back in a minute.”

Chester was alone, and in those few minutes the wonderful panorama of life passed before him.  He lived in periods, each period ending with Lucy Strong.  His boyhood, and his awakening to the world about him—­then Lucy; his schooldays, with boys and girls—­out from them came Lucy; his early manhood, his forming ideals—­completed in Lucy; his experiences in the West, and at Piney Ridge Cottage, and then came, not Julia, but Lucy; then the gospel with its new light and assurance of salvation; and this coupled with Lucy, her faith and love, burned as a sweet incense in the soul of Chester Lawrence.  Fear left him now.  He heard sounds as if they were songs from distant angel-choirs.  Words of comfort and strength were whispered to his heart:  “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art near me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me....”  Eternity!  Why, an immortal soul is always in eternity; and God is always at hand in life or in death....  Death! what is it but the passing to the other side of a curtain, where our loved ones are waiting to meet and greet us!