Page 253 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

from which he had started in the morning. The fire of the
exiles, hidden behind a point of rock, cast a red glow into
the air. The ocean breakers rolled in upon the cliffs outside
the bar, with a hoarse and threatening murmur; and the ris-
ing tide rippled and lapped with treacherous melody along
the sand. He touched the chill water and drew back. For
an instant he determined to wait until the beams of morn-
ing should illumine that beautiful but treacherous sea, and
then the thought of the helpless child, who was, without
doubt, waiting and watching for him on the shore, gave new
strength to his wearied frame; and fixing his eyes on the
glow that, hovering above the dark tree-line, marked her
presence, he pushed the raft before him out into the sea. The
reeds sustained him bravely, but the strength of the current
sucked him underneath the water, and for several seconds
he feared that he should be compelled to let go his hold. But
his muscles, steeled in the slow fire of convict-labour, with-
stood this last strain upon them, and, half-suffocated, with
bursting chest and paralysed fingers, he preserved his po-
sition, until the mass, getting out of the eddies along the
shore-line, drifted steadily down the silvery track that led
to the settlement. After a few moments’ rest, he set his teeth,
and urged his strange canoe towards the shore. Paddling
and pushing, he gradually edged it towards the fire-light;
and at last, just when his stiffened limbs refused to obey the
impulse of his will, and he began to drift onwards with the
onward tide, he felt his feet strike firm ground. Opening
his eyes—closed in the desperation of his last efforts— he
found himself safe under the lee of the rugged promontory

For the Term of His Natural Life