as I was fighting to see how far the red line marking my ascension had reached up to now, I was suddenly overcome by sacred awe. This red line had not been inscribed by my blood; someone else was ascending, someone else’s blood was flowing from his wounds and tracing a red course over land and sea—someone incomparably higher than me, a gigantic ancestor, a sea-fighter and mountaineer. I was no more than his shadow, the faithful shadow following him. I did not perceive him; I simply heard his sigh or thunderous laughter from time to time. I would look around me then and see no one. But I felt
...more
