ctacles and wiped them
with his handkerchief.

"I guess you know what to expect now. You've had your warning and you'd
better take it."

He took up his cue and went back into the billiard-room. There was so
much noise there that no one knew what had happened. Lawson picked
himself up. He put his hand to his ear, which was singing still. Then he
slunk out of the club.

I saw a man cross the road, a patch of white against the darkness of the
night, but did not know who it was. He came down to the beach, passed me
sitting at the foot of the tree, and looked down. I saw then that it was
Lawson, but since he was doubtless drunk, did not speak. He went on,
walked irresolutely two or three steps, and turned back. He came up to
me and bending down stared in my face.

"I thought it was you," he said.

He sat down and took out his pipe.

"It was hot and noisy in the club," I volunteered.

"Why are you sitting here?"

"I was waiting about for the midnight mass at the Cathedral."

"If you like I'll come with you."

Lawson was quite sober. We sat for a while smoking in silence. Now and
then in the lagoon was the splash of some big fish, and a little way out
towards the opening in the reef was the light of a schooner.

"You're sailing next week, aren't you?" he said.

"Yes."

"It would be jolly to go home once more. But I could never stand it now.
The cold, you know."

"It's odd to think that in England now they're shivering round the
fire," I said.

There was not even a breath of wind. The balminess of the night was like
a spell. I wore nothing but a thin shirt and a suit of ducks. I enjoyed
the exquisite languor of the night, and stretched my limbs voluptuously.

"This isn't the sort of New Year's Eve that persuades one to make good
resolutions for the future," I smiled.

He made no answer, but I do not know what train of thought my casual
remark had suggested in him, for presently he began to speak. He spoke
in a low voice, without any expression, but his accents were educated,
and it was a relief to hear him after the twang and the vulgar
intonations which for some time had wounded my ears.

"I've made an awful hash of things. That's obvious, isn't it? I'm right
down at the bottom of the pit and there's no getting out for me. '_Black
as the pit from pole to pole._'" I felt him smile as he made the
quotation. "And the strange thing is that I don't see how I went wrong."

I held my breath, for to me there i