they uncovered were bright gleaming dagger points. "Ain't never!--the
slob!" And with a flood of almost sobbing invective he let himself go.

But as the waters closed over him and he sank, his hand, reaching
blindly out to grip in imagination the foe, touched something
round--like a serpent, or an eel. His fingers closed about it--it proved
to be a line; he drew himself along, and to his surprise found himself
again on the surface, and near a great fragment of wreckage. This he
might have discovered earlier, but for the anger and hatred that had
blinded him to all save the realization of his inability to wreak
vengeance. Now, though he managed to reach the edge of the swaying mass
from which the line dangled, he was too weak to draw himself up on the
floating timbers. But he did pass a loop beneath his arms, and, thus
sustained, he waited for his strength to return. Finally, his mind in a
daze, the convict clambered, after repeated efforts, upon the wreckage,
fastened the line about him again, and, falling into a saucer-like
hollow, he sank into unconsciousness.

The night wore on; he did not move. The sea began to subside; still he
lay as if dead. Dawn's rosy lips kissed away the black shadows, touched
tenderly the waves' tops, and at length the man stirred. He tried to sit
up, but at first could not. Finally he raised himself and looked about
him.

No other sign of the vessel than that part of it which had served him so
well could he see; this fragment seemed rent from the bow; yes, there
was the yellow wooden mermaid bobbing to the waves; but not as of old!
Poor cast-out trollop,--now the seas made sport of her who once had held
her head so high!