-night, gentlemen; I wish you the pleasures of the evening." So
saying, the man with the tawny beard disappeared, and it was not long
before Tresco was left alone with his patient.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Yellow Flag.

The harbour of Timber Town was formed by a low-lying island shaped like
a long lizard, which stretched itself across an indentation in the
coast-line, and the tail of which joined the mainland at low tide,
while the channel between its head and the opposing cliffs was deep,
practicable, and safe.

Immediately opposite this end of the island the wharves and quays of
Timber Town stretched along the shore, backed by hills which were dotted
with painted wooden houses, nestling amid bowers of trees. Beyond these
hills lay Timber Town itself, invisible, sheltered, at the bottom of its
basin.

The day was hot, clear and still; the water lapped the shore lazily, and
the refracted atmosphere shimmered with heat, wherever the sea touched
the land.

A little dingey put off from the shore. It contained two men, one of
whom sat in the stern while the other pulled. Silently over the surface
of the calm, blue water the little craft skimmed. It passed through a
small fleet of yachts and pleasure-boats moored under the lee of the
protecting island, and presently touched the pebbles of a miniature
beach.

Out stepped the Pilot of Timber Town and Captain Sartoris.

"An' you call this blazin' climate o' yours temperate," exclaimed the
shipwrecked mariner.

"Heat?" said the Pilot, making the painter of the boat fast to some
rusty bits of iron that lay on the shore; "you call this heat, with the
sea-breeze risin', and the island cooling like a bottle of champagne in
an ice-chest. It's plain to see, Sartoris, you're a packet-rat that
never sailed nowhere except across the Western Ocean, in an' out o'
Liverpool and New York." They had approached the end of the island, and
overlooked the harbour entrance. "Now, this is where I intend to place
the beacon. What do you think of it?" Sartoris assumed the manner and
expression of supreme interest, but said nothing. "Them two leading
lights are all very well in their way, but this beacon, with the near
one, will give a line that will take you outside o' that sunken reef
which stretches a'most into the fairway; and a vessel 'll be able to
come in, scientific and safe, just like a lady into a drawing-room."

With a seaman's eye Sartoris took in the situation at a glance.