his eyes and his lips were sealed tight, and to open them, a
little army of gnomes came out of the darkness in the back of his
head, each of them armed with a lever, and began prying with all
their might. After that came the beginning of light and a flash of
consciousness.

The girl was working over him. He could feel her and hear her
movement. Water was trickling over his face. Then he heard a
voice, close over him, saying something in a sobbing monotone
which he could not understand.

With a mighty effort he opened his eyes.

"Thank LE BON DIEU, you live, m'sieu," he heard the voice say, as
if coming from a long distance away. "You live, you live--"

"Tryin' to," he mumbled thickly, feeling suddenly a sense of great
elation. "Tryin'--"

He wanted to curse the gnomes for deserting him, for as soon as
they were gone with their levers, his eyes and his lips shut tight
again, or at least he thought they did. But he began to sense
things in a curious sort of way. Some one was dragging him. He
could feel the grind of sand under his body. There were intervals
when the dragging operation paused. And then, after a long time,
he seemed to hear more than one voice. There were two--sometimes a
murmur of them. And odd visions came to him. He seemed to see the
girl with shining black hair and dark eyes, and then swiftly she
would change into a girl with hair like blazing gold. This was a
different girl. She was not like Pretty Eyes, as his twisted mind