SEA-WRACK 29 



to a ribbon and then to a gully. In ugly angles 

 and sharp, unreasonable bends it zigzagged down 

 the shoulder of the great cinderous mountain. 

 Before I realized it my gully became a gorge 

 and ended at the edge of the dark waters, as 

 black and as mysterious as it had begun. 



Idly, I lay and watched the silver shuttle of 

 coral-shattered foam weaving the warp and 

 woof of the rising tide along the whole length 

 of shore. This seemed the only bit of land 

 in the whole world. Was it the first or the 

 last to appear above the waters? It might 

 have been either, until, suddenly I saw a 

 movement among what I had taken for huge, 

 crater-spewed boulders, but which I now knew 

 for the weathered remains of a city. From be- 

 tween two walls of this city of the dead came 

 slowly into view the last human being in the 

 world or so the surroundings suggested. Yet 

 a second glance belied this, for her mission was 

 fraught with hope. Even at this distance I 

 could discern her stately carriage, swinging and 

 free, her black countenance and her heavy bur- 

 den. At the very edge of the water she stopped, 

 lifted down the basket piled with black volcanic 

 debris and emptied it. She stood up, looked 



