`` Just enough time to read that article on impressionists in my review and then stroll home by the sandshore . '' From reading he passed to day-dreaming , and day-dreaming drifted into sleep , with his head pillowed on the rocky walls of the cave . How long he had slept he did not know , but he woke with a start of horror . He sprang to his feet , realizing his position instantly . The tide was in -- far in past the headlands already . Above and beyond him towered the pitiless unscalable rocks . There was no way of escape . Reeves was no coward , but life was sweet to him , and to die like that -- like a drowned rat in a hole -- to be able to do nothing but wait for that swift and sure oncoming death ! He reeled against the damp rock wall , and for a moment sea and sky and prisoning headlands and white-lined tide whirled before his eyes . Then his head grew clearer . He tried to think . How long had he ? Not more than twenty minutes at the outside . Well , death was sure and he would meet it bravely . But to wait -- to wait helplessly ! He should go ; mad with the horror of it before those endless minutes would have passed ! He took something from his pocket and bent his , head over it , pressing his lips to it repeatedly . And then , when he raised his face again , a dory was coming around the headland on his right , and Helen Fraser was in it . Reeves was dizzy again with the shock of joy and thankfulness . He ran down over the little stretch of sand still uncovered by the tide and around to the rocks of the headlands against which the dory was already grating .
He sprang forward impulsively and caught the girl 's cold hands XXXXX his as she dropped the oars and stood up .
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