he had cast off, taken the tiller and after a few moments of idle
jockeying back and forth in the light puffs, squared away for the run
seaward before the rising wind, his gloomy thoughts returned, to settle
like a flock of phantom harpies and feast on his brain.

Out of nothing grew a vision of Judd's chalky, troubled face, and he
felt a sudden rush of sympathy for the crude mountaineer, who had
likewise loved and lost. "Smiles wasn't to blame then. She isn't to
blame _now_. She never led either of us on," he said aloud; but his
clenched teeth cut through the end of his cigar, nevertheless. With only
his moody thought to bear him company, Donald steered seaward.

Starting slowly, the racing craft was momentarily given new impetus by
swelling wind and following wave; but the man paid no heed to the things
which should have served him as a warning--the higher heaving of the
waters, now as gray and as cloudy green as a dripping cliff, and touched
with flecks of milky spume; and the uneven tugging of the sail. When he
did become aware of the swift change which had taken place, hardly five
minutes had passed from the time he had started out, yet a quick glance
behind him disclosed a new heaven and a new earth and sea; the old had
passed away.

Where else is nature's stupendous power so evident as in the sinister
speed with which the armies of the tempest make their swift advance,
company on company, regiment on regiment, division on division?

In the moments which had passed unmarked by him in his absorption, the
whole western sky had become overcast and blackened by the vaporous army
of invasion, whose forecoursing streams of cavalry skirmishers were
already high over his head. The earth had lost its laughing colors, and
seemed to lie cowering, with its head covered with a dull mantle, and
the sea had accepted the challenge of the storm clouds and was beginning
to leap forward in swirling, gloomy waves.

With a strong steady pull on the tiller, Donald brought the little craft
around in a sweeping curve and headed into the wind, which had suddenly
become chill and moist. The boat tilted sharply, and a dash of spray
leaped the bow and, changing back to water, ran down the leeward side of
the cockpit. A drop of rain splashed on his bared forearm, and then
another and another. Through the dark, serried clouds came a dagger
thrust of fire, to be followed by a distant detonation which bore his
heart back to the shuddering