e dismissal is unmistakable in its terms," he answered. "Yet, since I
have come a long way, may I not sit here for a moment of rest--provided
I am very silent?"

Mary smiled and then quite unpremeditatedly she found herself
inquiring, "A long way? Where do you come from then?"

"From St. Petersburg," he enlightened in a casual fashion, and after a
moment he added, "to see you!"

"You just said you were seeking a place to be alone and why should you
look for me whom you never saw before and whom you can't see now, for
the dark? You don't even know what I'm like."

"I beg your pardon, Miss Burton.--There, you see I know your name."

The tantalizingly familiar note in his voice puzzled and interested her
with a cumulative force. "I have a very definite idea what you are like.
Not being a poet, I'm afraid I can't put it into words."

"But you haven't seen me!" Her speech became for an instant
mischievously whimsical. "Of course, if you have a burglar's lantern
about you--or a match I suppose you might."

The man drew a small case from his pocket and struck a wax match,
holding it close.

She met his gaze, and he stood motionless until the tiny blaze traveled
down the length of the shaft and burned his fingers. His eyes never left
her face. In those eyes she felt a strange power of magnetism, for they
did not burn as other eyes had burned. They did not shift or waver. When
the match fell he spoke quietly. "You are as beautiful as starlight on
water and I am a true prophet."

In the brief and limited illumination she had recognized him, too, and
she bent impulsively toward him. In his coming just now as though in
answer to her thoughts there seemed something almost occult.

"Then you didn't die? You won your fight with your even chance? Oh, I
am so glad!"

"Thank you," answered Jefferson Edwardes gravely. "That's worth refusing
to die for."

"It's strange, Mr. Edwardes," she spoke almost dreamily. "Perhaps it's
because I've been listening to the voice of the hills, but I have been
sitting here alone--hiding--and while I've been here I've been thinking
of you--wondering where you were."

"For that, too, I thank 'whatever gods there be,'" he assured her. "It
has been a long time since we met and I was afraid you had forgotten. Of
course, I've read of you and I knew that my prophecy was being
fulfilled. Twice I planned to leave St. Petersburg and pursue you to
London or Paris, but each time business matters inter