to me, Mr. Thomas," the old skipper answered
at once, not being within ten feet of Monsieur and his paper. "If I'm
mistaken, sir, I'll apologize when we get ashore, but I carn't see any
reason why the ceremony shouldn't take place at high noon. If that's too
early, Mr. Jack, we can sail back to Key West--or New Oreleans."

"But my authority," the professor cried, seeming on the verge of
apoplexy.

Tommy closed the calf-bound book and tossed it over to me, then turned
Monsieur good-naturedly around and pointed to the Stars and Stripes
flying at our main peak.

"While you're on this yacht, my friend," he laughed, "that's the
authority, and _don't you forget it_!"

I glanced at the volume of Marine Law he had tossed to me. It was
_Gibbon's_ DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE!

Monsieur's beard began to twitch curiously. I thought at first he was
really intending to make the best of things, but suddenly two great
tears squeezed from his eyes and rolled lumberingly over his cheeks;
then, as an unbridled torrential storm breaks in the tropics, he threw
himself face down upon the cushions and wept--piteously.

Tommy and I were thunderstruck. It gives one a weird feeling to see a
man shaken with grief. I was helpless and, there's no denying it, just
a little remorseful. As quick in sympathy as he was in resource, Tommy
crossed and put a hand on the old fellow's shoulder, saying gently:

"Buck up, Professor. This kind of thing won't do, you know!"

Then my surprise was most complete. Sitting now, face buried in his
hands, he brokenly told a story that at times brought tears to our own
eyes.

When he finished I had visualized a scene begun more than thirty years
ago in the Royal Palace of Azuria: an honorable young doctor, Court
physician, voluntarily surrendering his appointment because he loved the
King's younger daughter--Doloria's aunt; the old ruler's searching eyes
that sympathized even while they censured--the aged hand that pressed
with understanding even while it took the proffered resignation. Then
the young doctor's quick departure; his plunge into the Universities,
trusting absorption of the sciences to act as a panacea for his grief.
Years later his return to Azuria; their pure love still burning, though
unexpressed. At last the kidnaping; the quick preparations for pursuit;
and finally the girl, herself, sweet with many confessions, bringing in
her own hands the old King's "authority"--this paper before