And so came the last day in Kalmut Fiord; and I greeted its dawning from the Wanderer’s decks, where I had paced at intervals during the night, and I was not tired. In amazement I watched the sun roll back the fog-banks from the hills, for I was seeing with new eyes, and the sense of a new beginning, of a freshening of life, was upon me.
That same incomprehensible force which was clearing the valley of its nightly cloak of gray was stirring me, troubling me, lifting me. Vaguely—for my thoughts were elsewhere—I sensed the quickening of my being and knew that never had I been so thoroughly alive.
That night had been a period of alternate joy and torture to me. I flung myself on my bed, but the stateroom seemed insufferably small and confining.
I sprang up and went out, pacing the decks. I passed Betty’s state-room and the thrill that leapt within me sent me staggering on, drunken with new feelings. I passed Chanler’s room, and the thrill died and I was bitter. I sought the fore-deck and in my mind reenacted the meeting with Brack. There he had stood, there Betty, here myself. There her shoulder had touched mine and here I had met Brack as he hurled himself upon her. There Brack had kissed her, while I lay on the deck; there near the rail he had held her, and there I had taken her from him and for a brief moment had held her in my arms.
I pictured the night when she had called to him, and the memory of her tone was like a storm, shaking me to my knees. I looked in on Chanler and found him awake and reading. There was in his eyes the strength of a man who has won through a crisis and found peace. And well there might be! I told him that I wished to get back to Seattle, so I might quit him, as soon as possible, and went out before he could reply.
Old Slade, standing the dog-watch, approached me wonderingly and asked if I couldn’t sleep.
“Sleep!” I sneered. “Why should a man want to do anything so simple as sleep when he can walk out here beneath the stars and torture himself with thoughts.”
He stroked his long beard. “Pain cometh to all men——”
“So I’ve heard,” I replied curtly, and walked away.
And so I greeted the dawning of our last day in the Hidden Country unslept; and yet I was as fresh as Wilson when he came hobbling up to judge the weather.