you liked it!"

"Maybe I only got used to it. Say, Denny, was there a wireless man in the
crew?"

"No. I knew there wouldn't be. But I can handle the key."

"Fine! Come along then."

"What are you going to do?"

"Do? Why, I'm going to have the Asiatic fleets on his heels inside of
twenty-four hours! That's what I'm going to do! He's an unprincipled
rogue!"

"No," interposed Jane, "only a poor broken thing."

"That's no fault of mine. But no man can play this sort of game with me,
and show a clean pair of heels. The rug and the paintings are gone for
good. I swore to him that I would have his hide, and have it I will! I
never break my word."

"Denny," said Jane, "for my sake you will not touch the wireless."

"I'm giving the orders!" roared Cleigh.

"Wait a moment!" said Jane. "You spoke of your word. That first night you
promised me any reparation I should demand."

"I made that promise. Well?"

"Give him his eight months."

She gestured toward the sea, toward the spot where they had last seen the
_Haarlem_.

"You demand that?"

"No, I only ask it. I understand the workings of that twisted soul, and
you don't. Let him have his queer dream--his boyhood adventure. Are you
any better than he? Were those treasures honourably yours? Fie! No, I
won't demand that you let him go; I'll only ask it. Because you will not
deny to me what you gave to those little children--generosity."

Cleigh did not speak.

"I want to love you," she continued, "but I couldn't if there was no mercy
in your sense of justice. Be merciful to that unhappy outcast, who
probably never had any childhood, or if he had, a miserable one. Children
are heartless; they don't know any better. They pointed the finger of
ridicule and contempt at him--his playmates. Imagine starting life like
that! And he told me that the first woman he loved--laughed in his face! I
feel--I don't know why--that he was always without care, from his
childhood up. He looked so forlorn! Eight months! We need never tell him.
I'd rather he shouldn't know that I tried to intercede for him. But for
him we three would not be here together, with understanding. I only ask
it."

Cleigh turned and went down the ladder. Twenty times he circled the deck;
then he paused under the bridge and sent up a hail.

"Dinner is ready!"

The moment Jane reached the deck Cleigh put an arm round her.

"No other human being could have done it. It is a cup of gall and
wormwood, but I