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“Now, my friend, I must tell you how the sight operated upon me and upon my companion. For myself, I can only say that, looking upon that fine, independent fore-mother of my race, I felt the sun in my veins and the winy fragrance of antique woods and pastures. I laughed; I clapped my hands; I danced on the ice-rubbish, so that they thought me mad. But, for the other–the man–he was in a different plight. He was transfigured; his nervousness was gone in a flash. He cast himself down upon his knees, and gazed and gazed, his hands clasped, upon that sleek, mild progenitor of his, that pure image of gentle self-containment, whose very meekness suggested an indomitable will.

“Suddenly he, my friend, cried out: ‘This is one caught in the process of materialization! It is not flesh; my God, no!’

“It seemed, indeed, as if it were as he said. I stopped in my capering and looked down. The tarry hinds standing by grinned and jeered.

“On the instant there came a splintering snap, and the floe rocked and curtsied.

“‘Back!’ yelled the captain. ‘She’s breaking through by the head!’

“He shrieked of the ship. She was clearing herself, had already shaken her prow free of the ice.

“There was a wild scamper for safety. I was carried with the throng. It was not until I was hauled on board once more that I thought of my friend. He still knelt where we had fled from him, a wrapt, strange expression on his face.

“‘Come back!’ I screamed. ‘You will be lost!’

“Now at that he turned his head and looked at me; but he never moved, and his voice came to me quiet and exultant.

“‘Lost!’ he said, ‘ay, for forty-three years: and here, here I find myself!’

“We dipped, and the wash of the water came about our bows. The block of ice swerved, made a sluggish half-pirouette and dropped astern.

“‘Come!’ I shrieked again faintly.

“With the echo of my cry he was a phantom, a blot, had vanished in the rearward fog; and thereout a little joyous laugh came to me.

“And that was a queer good-bye for ever, wasn’t it?”