The commissioner did not know where He was, whether it was a joke or a project coming in earnest, with the mental reservation of keeping on part of the clothing, or for one of the parties to withdraw.
"You take a bath and I will go on farther," he found this the only thing to answer.
"Don't you bathe then?" asked the girl.
"No, I have no bathing suit with me," answered the commissioner; "and besides, I do not bathe in cold water."
"Ha, ha, ha!" rang a cold, disagreeable, scornful laugh from the girl's throat. "You, afraid of cold water," sneered she; "perhaps you cannot swim?"
"Cold water is too coarse for my fine nerves. If you will take a cold bath here I will go to the northern point and take a warm one."
The girl had already pushed off her shoes and throwing a look of disdain and injured vanity at him, she said:
"I suppose you cannot see me from there?"
"Not unless you swim out too far," answered the commissioner and went away.
When he had reached the northern slope of the islet, he searched for a cleft in the rock, which was protected from the northern wind by a rocky wall about fifty feet high. The black hornblende gneiss was as polished as agate by the waves and curved in frail delicate rolls which resembled the muscles of the human body and clung to the bare feet soft as a bolster. No breath of wind reached here, and the sun had burned six hours against the dark ledge so that the air was heated several degrees above body temperature, and the stones almost burned beneath his feet. He had been down to the boat and brought an ax with which he now cut oft the driest heath and sand oats and made up a blazing fire on the rock; in the meantime he undressed. When the fire had quickly burned out he swept the ledge clean as a baker's oven, and with a bailer poured the crystal sea water over the heated stones and let the vapors lap his nude body. Then he placed himself in one of the arm chairs which the sea had sculptured from the cliffs, wrapped a blanket round him and with his knees crouched under his chin shut his eyes and seemed to fall asleep. But he did not sleep; he used this method as he called it to wind himself up and for a few moments let his brain rest and resume its elasticity. For it was too much of an effort to fit himself into companionship with the confused thoughts of others. His mechanism of thought suffered by contact with others, so that it wavered and became unreliable as the compass needle in the presence of iron. Each time he would think clearly about something or form a conclusion, he placed his soul in harmonious numbness by a warm bath, extinguished consciousness in a half slumber for a brief moment by not thinking, during which time all the received observation material seemed to become melted, and afterwards when he extinguished the fire and awoke himself to consciousness the alloy welled up.