When Luke Sparrow reached the beach, he tore at his boot-laces, flung off his coat and, in less than twenty seconds, was swimming up the sunlit way, his eyes dazzled by the golden glory, his heart throbbing from his rapid race down the cliff. He seemed to have burst invisible shackles which hitherto had held him captive.
“Free!” he shouted. “Free! On to the sunrise! No going back!”
Wild sea birds, flying above him, swooped and dipped, till their wings almost touched his face as they passed.
He laughed, and echoed their wild cries.
“God give me wings, that I may mount and rise!”
154He dived into green depths where fishes flopped against his face, and waving arms of giant sea-weed tried to catch him as he passed.
He came to the surface gasping; dashed the water from his eyes; then settled into a steady breast stroke, swimming out to sea, straight to the sun.
He swam. He swam. He swam. On, toward the shoreless horizon.
His heart pounded in his ears. Still he swam on.
His arms felt like lead. He folded them across his breast and swam without them.
His legs could move no more. He turned upon his back and lay, like a bit of driftwood, resting.
He grinned at the blue sky above him.
“Flotsam and jetson,” he remarked confidentially to a swooping gull. “‘Returned Empty. This side up, with care.’ That’s more to the point just now. Don’t peck at my eyes, you greedy brute! Wait a week for that.... Here lies a poor derelict on 155the ocean of Time, at the mercy of every wind of circumstance.... Swim, you fool! Yonder lies your one way Home.”
He turned over, and swam on and on, into the dazzling glory.
At length a dream-like sense of unreality came over him, a strange, sweet peace; a wish to fall asleep.
He heard church bells in the distance, growing nearer.
At first he thought they came floating out to sea from the land he had left behind, and he ceased swimming that he might listen.
Then they pealed louder, coming up—up—from the green depths beneath him.
Come down and find us!
Come down and find us!
He looked down and instantly sank—deep, deep, deep into the cool silence. Instinctively he held his breath, threw up his hands and rose to the surface; gasped, took a long breath; raised his arms above his head and went down like a stone.
156Deeper, deeper, deeper.
The church bells pealed so loudly, he thought their clanging clamour would burst the drums of his ears.
They lose their immortality
They lose their immortality
Those who do this
Those who do this
Those who do this
Those who do this
They lose their immortality.
He was entangled in flapping sea-weed, but he fought himself free. It was very dark.
He threw up his arms and rose slowly to the surface.
The sun seemed miles above him, a pale phantom, luminous through the green waters.
It grew brighter. He reached the surface. It blazed upon him.
The church bells stopped suddenly. Everything stopped. His heart stopped. There was a great silence.
He was too tired to breathe. He clasped 157his hands, lifted them slowly above his head, and went down for the third time.
As he sank he heard the head-master say: “Luke Sparrow—first prize”; he saw the glitter of the Mayor’s grand chain. All his school life rushed backward through his mind, and then—he was flinging down a rattle on the nursery floor, and the matron’s voice was saying: “Poor little ‘Returned Empty.’ He won’t even play with his rattle.”
“I&rsquo............