denly into her mind, long prepared, came the thought of Code
Schofield. Amid the chaos of her shattered ideals his face and figure
rose more desirable than all the earth.

"Oh, Heaven, give him to me--some time!" she breathed in a voice of
humble prayer.

Nat Burns went back to his schooner, squarely defeated for the first
time in his life. Humbled, and cringing like a whipped dog, he made
his dory fast to the _Nettie's_ rail and slunk aft to the solitude of
his cabin. He was glad that even the cook was looking the other way.

"She has flouted me, and the whole of Grande Mignon will know it," he
said to himself. "Then they will want to know why, but that is easy
enough to lie about. Hang that Mallaby woman! Who would ever think
she'd squeal? Yes, and Schofield, the smug crook! They're the two that
are doin' the damage to me."

Nat's lifelong knowledge of Code's and Nellie's affection returned to
him now with a more poignant pang of memory than he had ever
experienced. With the hopeless egotism of a totally selfish nature, he
laid his calamity in love to activity on Code's part. He was pretty
well aware of Elsa's extravagant favoritism of Code, and he
immediately figured that Code had enlisted Elsa on his side to the
ruin of Nat.

"So I've got to beat 'em all now, have I?" he asked grimly, his jaw
setting with an ugly click. "Schofield and Mallaby, and--yes--while
I'm about it, Tanner, too. The old man never liked me, the girl hates
me, and I wouldn't mind giving 'em a dig along with the rest. Just to
show 'em that I'm not so easy an' peaceful as I look! But how?"

For a considerable space of time he sat there, his head low on his
breast, and his eyes half closed as his brain went over scheme after
scheme. The detective that Nat had brought from St. Andrew's stuck his
head down the cabin and remarked:

"Look here, captain, I want to arrest my man and get back. Why don't
you hunt up that ship and let me finish?"

"I've got something a lot better on hand, Durkee," remarked Nat with a
grin, rising from his chair, a plan having leaped full blown into his
mind. "Just stick along with me and you'll get your man, all right."

He went outside and called the men in with a revolver-shot and a trawl
tub run to the masthead. It was about noon when they came in, and,
after eating, three o'clock passed before they had finished dressing
down.

"Any of you boys run across a dory from the _Night Hawk?_" asked Nat
as the men