Now the sun, which had been steadily sinking, touched the western edge of the sea and spilled his glory upon the water, the blue and windy day died and passed at a stroke to the momentary evening of the tropics, and the evening into night.
CHAPTER XLII
THE MORNING SEA
In a moment, night, wearing all her jewellery, was standing above the sea, the wind had died away, the cormorants had ceased crying, and the boom of the waves was the only sound beneath the stillness of the stars.
Gaspard turned to his provision store for supper. He had placed the canned meat and the biscuits close to one of the tree boles, and to-morrow he would have to make a caçhe to protect them from the sun. Thinking of this, he ate his supper without appetite or knowing what he ate; his mind had passed into that dazed condition which comes from surfeit of sensation; it had fed full of treasure and now was torpid.
When he had supped, he lit a pipe, but scarcely had he done so than sleep came upon him, the pipe fell from his mouth beside him as he lay there on the sands, the stars shining upon him and the sea singing to him; marooned, ragged, without a roof to shelter him, and with the wealth of emperors at his elbow.
Hours passed and the great moving dome of the stars shifted above the world; one might have thought the figure on the sand a corpse cast up by the sea from some wreck. Then it began to move and struggle and cry out; one might have fancied it attacked by some unseen enemy. It was.
Scarcely had the deep unconsciousness of the first sleep lifted, admitting the mind into dreamland, than Gaspard found himself surrounded by his enemies. He was passing through horrible back streets and men were following him to rob him. Yves, Sagesse, and the chief engineer of the Rhone were amongst them.
Then the dream changed and he was standing in a bar with Yves, showing him the treasure, and, behold, the rubies and diamonds had changed to pieces of glass and the rest to sea shells and rubbish—he had not even the price of a drink and he had brought Yves in to stand him a bottle of wine, brought him in arm in arm, boasting of his wealth!