fills i am going away come thou also in his mind had already escaped from the boat and was high in air to find a rest for the sole of his foot his he was really sorry for its gross lay in the stem the water rushing about its knees how very ridiculous he said to himself from his is chief of the bridge the poor beast is going to be drowned too drowned when it s close to shore i m� i m on shore already why does n t it come along to his intense disgust he found his soul back in his body again and that body and choking in deep water the pain of the was but it was necessary also to fight for the body he was conscious of grasping wildly at wet sand and as one strides in a dream to keep in the water till at last he hauled himself clear of the hold of the river and dropped panting on wet earth not this night said in his ear the have protected us the moved his feet cautiously and they among dried this is some island of last year s crop he went on we shall find no men here but have great care the bridge all the of a hundred miles have been out here comes the lightning on the heels of the wind now we shall be able to look but walk carefully was far and far beyond any fear of or indeed any merely human emotion he saw after he had rubbed the water from his eyes with an clearness and trod so it seemed to himself with strides somewhere in the night of time he had built a a bridge that of shining seas but the had swept it away leaving this one island under heaven for and his companion sole of the breed of man an incessant lightning and blue showed all that there was to be seen on the little patch in the flood � a of thorn a of swaying creaking and a grey a shrine from whose dome floated a tattered red flag the holy man whose summer resting place it was had long since abandoned it and the weather had broken the image of his god the two men and heavy eyed over the ashes of a brick set cooking place and dropped down under the shelter of the branches while the rain and river roared together the of the and there was a smell of cattle as a huge and dripping bull shouldered his way imder the tree the flashes revealed the mark of on his flank the insolence of head and the luminous like eyes the brow crowned with a wreath of and the that almost swept the ground there the bridge was a noise behind him of other beasts coming up from the flood line through the thicket a sound of heavy feet and deep breathing here be more beside ourselves said his head against the tree pole looking through half shut eyes wholly at ease truly said thickly and no small ones what are they then i do not see clearly the gods who else look i ah true i the gods surely � the gods smiled as his head fell forward on his chest was eminently right after the flood who should be alive in the land except the gods that made it� the gods to whom his village prayed the gods who were in all men s mouths and about all men s ways he could not raise his head or stir a finger for the trance that held him and was smiling at the lightning the bull paused by the shrine his head lowered to the damp earth a green in the branches his wet wings and screamed against the thunder as the circle imder the tree filled with the shifting shadows of beasts there was a black buck at the bull s such a buck as in his far away life upon th might have seen in a buck with a royal head back silver belly and gleaming straight horns beside him her head bowed to the ground the green eyes burning under the heavy brows with restless the dead grass paced a full and deep the bull crouched beside the shrine and there leaped from the darkness a monstrous grey who seated himself man wise in the place of the fallen image and the bridge the rain like jewels from the hair of his neck and shoulders other shadows came and went behind the circle among them a drunken man flourishing staff and then a hoarse broke out from near the ground the flood even now it cried hour by hour the water falls and their bridge still stands my bridge said to himself that must be very old work now what have the to do with my bridge his eyes rolled in the darkness following the roar a the ford haunting of the herself before the beasts furiously to right and left with her tail they have made it too strong for me in all this night i have only torn away a handful of the walls stand the towers stand they have chained my flood and the river is not free any more heavenly ones take this yoke away give me clear water between bank and bank it is i mother that speak the justice of the gods deal me the justice of the gods what said i whispered this is in truth a of the gods now we know that all the world is dead save you and i the screamed and fluttered again and the her ears flat to her somewhere in the shadow a great trunk and gleaming swayed to and fro and a low broke the silence that followed on the the bridge we be here said a deep voice the great ones one only and very many 