He lighted a cigarette with a hand that trembled; then turned to me with abrupt resolution.
"Goodwin," he said.

"I do need help.

If ever man needed it, I do.
Goodwin--can you imagine yourself in another world, alien, unfamiliar, a world of terror, whose unknown joy is its greatest terror of all; you all alone there, a stranger! As such a man would need help, so I need--" He paused abruptly and arose; the cigarette dropped from his fingers.
The moon had again broken through the clouds, and this time much nearer.

Not a mile away was the patch of light that it threw upon the waves.

Back of it, to the rim of the sea was a lane of moonlight; a gigantic gleaming serpent racing over the edge of the world straight and surely toward the ship.
Throckmartin stiffened to it as a pointer does to a hidden covey.