ar
inland, but always calmly for all the force of the wildest storm was
broken below. Some quarter mile inland the stream was deep at high
water, but at low tide there were at each side patches of the same
broken rock as lower down, through the chinks of which the sweet water
of the natural stream trickled and murmured after the tide had ebbed
away. Here, too, rose mooring posts for the fishermen's boats. At
either side of the river was a row of cottages down almost on the
level of high tide. They were pretty cottages, strongly and snugly
built, with trim narrow gardens in front, full of old-fashioned
plants, flowering currants, coloured primroses, wallflower, and
stonecrop. Over the fronts of many of them climbed clematis and
wisteria. The window sides and door posts of all were as white as
snow, and the little pathway to each was paved with light coloured
stones. At some of the doors were tiny porches, whilst at others were
rustic seats cut from tree trunks or from old barrels; in nearly every
case the window ledges were filled with boxes or pots of flowers or
foliage plants.

Two men lived in cottages exactly opposite each other across the
stream. Two men, both young, both good-looking, both prosperous, and
who had been companions and rivals from their boyhood. Abel Behenna
was dark with the gypsy darkness which the Phoenician mining wanderers
left in their track; Eric Sanson--which the local antiquarian said was
a corruption of Sagamanson--was fair, with the ruddy hue which marked
the path of the wild Norseman. These two seemed to have singled out
each other from the very beginning to work and strive together, to
fight for each other and to stand back to back in all endeavours. They
had now put the coping-stone on their Temple of Unity by falling in
love with the same girl. Sarah Trefusis was certainly the prettiest
girl in Pencastle, and there was many a young man who would gladly
have tried his fortune with her, but that there were two to contend
against, and each of these the strongest and most resolute man in the
port--except the other. The average young man thought that this was
very hard, and on account of it bore no good will to either of the
three principals: whilst the average young woman who had, lest worse
should befall, to put up with the grumbling of her sweetheart, and the
sense of being only second best which it implied, did not either, be
sure, regard Sarah with friendly eye. Thus it came, in the co