Page 296 - erewhon

gest no fancy or vision of anything to surpass the reality
which he had just witnessed. Awed and breathless he ad-
vances; when lo! the light of the afternoon sun welcomes
him as he leaves the tunnel, and behold a smiling valley— a
babbling brook, a village with tall belfries, and meadows of
brilliant green—these are the things which greet him, and
he smiles to himself as the terror passes away and in anoth-
er moment is forgotten.
So fared it now with ourselves. We had been in the wa-
ter some two or three hours, and the night had come upon
us. We had said farewell for the hundredth time, and had
resigned ourselves to meet the end; indeed I was myself
battling with a drowsiness from which it was only too prob-
able that I should never wake; when suddenly, Arowhena
touched me on the shoulder, and pointed to a light and to a
dark mass which was bearing right upon us. A cry for help—
loud and clear and shrill—broke forth from both of us at
once; and in another five minutes we were carried by kind
and tender hands on to the deck of an Italian vessel.