Then indeed he lost no time in
going ashore--alone, of course, from motives of delicacy.
"I arrived in time to see that poor girl die, as I have told your
Excellency," pursued Davidson. "I won't tell you what a time I had with
him afterwards. He talked to me. His father seems to have been a crank,
and to have upset his head when he was young. He was a queer chap.
Practically the last words he said to me, as we came out on the veranda,
were:
"'Ah, Davidson, woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young
to hope, to love--and to put its trust in life!'
"As we stood there, just before I left him, for he said he wanted to be
alone with his dead for a time, we heard a snarly sort of voice near the
bushes by the shore calling out:
"'Is that you, governor?'
"'Yes, it's me.'
"'Jeeminy! I thought the beggar had done for you. He has started
prancing and nearly had me. I have been dodging around, looking for you
ever since.'
"'Well, here I am,' suddenly screamed the other voice, and then a shot
rang out.
"'This time he has not missed him,' Heyst said to me bitterly, and went
back into the house.
"I returned on board as he had insisted I should do. I didn't want
to intrude on his grief. Later, about five in the morning, some of my
calashes came running to me, yelling that there was a fire ashore. I
landed at once, of course.
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