A moment
he had hesitated which side to make for, little knowing the awful
importance of that simple decision; then seeing the west bank a trifle
nearest, he made towards it, instead of swimming to jail like a good
boy, and so furnishing one a novel incident. Owing to the force of the
current they slanted considerably, and when they had covered near a
hundred yards, Denys murmured uneasily, "How much more of it?"
"Courage," mumbled Gerard. "Whatever a duck knows, a Dutchman knows; art
safe as in bed."
The next moment, to their surprise, they found themselves in shallow
water, and so waded ashore. Once on terra firma, they looked at one
another from head to foot as if eyes could devour, then by one impulse
flung each an arm round the other's neck, and panted there with hearts
too full to speak. And at this sacred moment life was sweet as heaven to
both; sweetest perhaps to the poor exiled lover, who had just saved his
friend. Oh, joy to whose height what poet has yet soared, or ever tried
to soar? To save a human life; and that life a loved one. Such moments
are worth living for, ay, three score years and ten. And then, calmer,
they took hands, and so walked along the bank hand in hand like a pair
of sweethearts, scarce knowing or caring whither they went.
The boat people were all safe on the late concave, now convex craft,
Herr Turnip-face, the "Inverter of things," being in the middle.
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