re loudly than ever, and
unsuccessfully pretending to a scattered audience, which consisted of the
skipper, Mr. Price, Dr. Cromarty, and sundry deck-hands, that he had done
nothing in particular and was not a hero. As Audrey approached him he
seemed to lay all his glory with humble pride at her feet.

"Well, he brought that on himself!" said Audrey, smiling.

"He did," Mr. Gilman concurred, gazing at the Hard with inimical scorn.

"She can't come--now," said Audrey. "It wouldn't be safe. He means to stay
on the Hard till we're gone. He's a very suspicious man."

Mr. Hurley was indeed lingering just beyond the immediate range of the
_Ariadne's_ lamps.

"Can't come! What a pity! What a pity!" murmured Mr. Gilman, with an accent
that was not a bit sincere. The news was the best he had heard for hours.
"But I suppose," he added, "we'd better sail just the same, as I've said we
should?" He did not want to run the risk of getting Jane Foley after all.

"Oh! Do!" Audrey exclaimed. "It will be lovely! If it doesn't rain--and
even if it does rain! We all like sailing at night.... Are the others in
the saloon? I'll run down."

"Mr. Wyatt," the owner sternly accosted the captain. "When can we get
off?"

"Oh! About midnight," Audrey answered quickly, before Mr. Wyatt could
compose his lips.

The men gazed at each other surprised by this show of technical knowledge
in a young widow. By the time Mr. Wyatt had replied, Audrey was descending
into the saloon. It was Aguilar who, having ascertained the _Ariadne's_
draught, had made the calculation as to the earliest possible hour of
departure.

And in the saloon Musa was, as it were, being enveloped and kept
comfortable in the admiring sympathy of Madame Piriac and Miss Thompkins.
Mr. Gilman's violin lay across his knees--perhaps he had been tuning
it--and the women inclined towards him, one on either side. It was a sight
that somewhat annoyed Audrey, who told herself that she considered it
silly. Admitting that Musa had genius, she could not understand this soft
flattery of genius. She never flattered genius herself, and she did not
approve of others doing so. Certainly Musa was now being treated on the
yacht as a celebrity of the first order, and Audrey could find no
explanation of the steady growth in the height and splendour of his throne.
Her arrival dissolved the spectacle. Within one minute, somehow, the saloon
was empty and everybody on deck again.

And then, drawing