as this, and the sea yonder is raging. If you attempt it, Robert, I will never forgive you! See, dear, how criminal such an attempt would be. You cannot save Axel—for Christian's story is absurd—and you will perish before reaching the rock, and I should be miserable for the rest of my life."
Robert promised her everything, but he did it without really comprehending what he was doing. He only knew one thing: he must not make Frida unhappy.
"Let us go and see Axel," he said.
Axel was rather feverish that day. There was a ring in his voice, and his lips trembled. He motioned to Robert and Frida to sit down by his side, and he took Robert's hand and Frida's hand.
"You will be together," he said, "when the Black Virgin has taken me away."
Frida could not restrain her tears, and she sobbed bitterly. As for Robert, he knelt by the bedside, kissed the boy's thin hands, and rushed out of the cottage.
During the winter, night falls about two o'clock in Finland. Without thinking, with out a glance backwards, Robert hurried to the beach. A wide stretch of snow-covered ice lay before him; in a very short time he had crossed it. He knew that a boat was moored to an islet some distance from the beach, and believed that from this point the sea was free, or nearly so. He could not bear to think of Frida's grief. He must get away from it. He would go to the islet, but would not get into the boat—it would be certain death, for the wind was blowing fiercely, driving the snowflakes before it in a blinding shower, and precipitating the blocks of ice against each other with great force.
However, near the islet the sea appeared pretty calm. The black rock did not seem to be so far off. "In an hour," thought Robert, "with the help of this favourable wind, I should reach the rock. Why should I not do the same as Christian's father did? I promised Frida that I would not go; but if, thanks to me, Axel should be restored to health, she will pardon me. After all, it is better to struggle heroically against the waves and the blocks of ice, like a brave seaman, than to stand by powerless and fearful, and watch the agony of a child and the despair of a woman."
All these thoughts passed rapidly through Robert's mind. Like all men of action, he acted quickly, and, before he really knew what he was doing, he found himself in the boat with the sail spread to the wind, holding the rudder with a firm hand as he set the boat's head to the rock.
The force of the wind nearly overturned the boat, but she righted herself gallantly and rode on the crest of the waves. Enormous blocks of ice drifted silently past like gigantic phantoms, Robert skilfully avoiding them. Many times the little craft was on the point of being sunk, but Robert was one of the most vigorous sailors of Liedsmarken, and he was nerved to his task by the thought of how much depended upon his reaching the rock. Were not the life of Axel and the happiness of Frida at stake? What joy there would be when he returned!
In the midst of the gale.
In the midst of the gale, blinded by the snowflakes, his boat reeling half over, his existence threatened every minute by the gigantic blocks of ice which drifted around him, Robert went bravely on, upheld by the thought of the welcome he would receive
