He had advanced his argument as though life had been a network of paths separated by chasms.

His voice sounded reasonable.
'"Suppose I had not--I mean to say, suppose I had stuck to the ship?
Well.

How much longer?
Say a minute--half a minute.Come.In thirty seconds, as it seemed certain then, I would have been overboard; and do you think I would not have laid hold of the first thing that came in my way--oar, life-buoy, grating--anything?
Wouldn't you ?" '"And be saved," I interjected.
'"I would have meant to be," he retorted.

"And that's more than I meant when I".

.