pitfalls,
for dropped coins. Then he cocked his head slightly at the profile of
Heyst's father, pen in hand above a white sheet of paper on a crimson
tablecloth; and, moving forward noiselessly, began to clear away the
breakfast things.

Though he proceeded without haste, the unerring precision of his
movements, the absolute soundlessness of the operation, gave it
something of the quality of a conjuring trick. And, the trick having
been performed, Wang vanished from the scene, to materialize presently
in front of the house. He materialized walking away from it, with no
visible or guessable intention; but at the end of some ten paces he
stopped, made a half turn, and put his hand up to shade his eyes. The
sun had topped the grey ridge of Samburan. The great morning shadow was
gone; and far away in the devouring sunshine Wang was in time to see
Number One and the woman, two remote white specks against the sombre
line of the forest. In a moment they vanished. With the smallest display
of action, Wang also vanished from the sunlight of the clearing.

Heyst and Lena entered the shade of the forest path which crossed the
island, and which, near its highest point had been blocked by felled
trees. But their intention was not to go so far. After keeping to the
path for some distance, they left it at a point where the forest was
bare of undergrowth, and the trees, festooned with creepers, stood clear
of one another in the gloom of their own making. Here and there great
splashes of light lay on the ground. They moved, silent in the great
stillness, breathing the calmness, the infinite isolation, the repose of
a slumber without dreams. They emerged at the upper limit of vegetation,
among some rocks; and in a depression of the sharp slope, like a small
platform, they turned about and looked from on high over the sea,
lonely, its colour effaced by sunshine, its horizon a heat mist, a mere
unsubstantial shimmer in the pale and blinding infinity overhung by the
darker blaze of the sky.

"It makes my head swim," the girl murmured, shutting her eyes and
putting her hand on his shoulder.

Heyst, gazing fixedly to the southward, exclaimed:

"Sail ho!"

A moment of silence ensued.

"It must be very far away," he went on. "I don't think you could see it.
Some native craft making for the Moluccas, probably. Come, we mustn't
stay here."

With his arm round her waist, he led her down a little distance, and
they settled themselves in