The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: There was no place to hide on those stony things--
and if there had been, what would have been the good?
But now I was clear of that ship, I was not going back.
So after a while I took off all my clothes, tied them up in a
bundle with a stone inside, and dropped them in the deep water
on the outer side of that islet. That was suicide enough for me.
Let them think what they liked, but I didn't mean to drown myself.
I meant to swim till I sank--but that's not the same thing.
I struck out for another of these little islands, and it
was from that one that I first saw your riding light.
Something to swim for. I went on easily, and on the way I came
The Secret Sharer |