ifty
soldiers."

"So there are, but--"

"But what?"

"Well, never mind. It's against the rules, and I won't have it."

"'Not according to the King's Regulations,' as Captain Vickers would
say."

Frere laughed at her imitation of his pompous captain.

"You are a strange girl; I can't make you out. Come," and he took her
hand, "tell me what you are really."

"Will you promise not to tell?"

"Of course."

"Upon your word?"

"Upon my word."

"Well, then--but you'll tell?"

"Not I. Come, go on."

"Lady's-maid in the family of a gentleman going abroad."

"Sarah, you can't be serious?" "I am serious. That was the advertisement
I answered."

"But I mean what you have been. You were not a lady's-maid all your
life?"

She pulled her shawl closer round her and shivered.

"People are not born ladies' maids, I suppose?"

"Well, who are you, then? Have you no friends? What have you been?"

She looked up into the young man's face--a little less harsh at
that moment than it was wont to be--and creeping closer to him,
whispered--"Do you love me, Maurice?"

He raised one of the little hands that rested on the taffrail, and,
under cover of the darkness, kissed it.

"You know I do," he said. "You may be a lady's-maid or what you like,
but you are the loveliest woman I ever met."

She smiled at his vehemence.

"Then, if you love me, what does it matter?" "If you loved me, you would
tell me," said he, with a quickness which surprised himself.

"But I have nothing to tell, and I don't love you--yet."

He let her hand fall with an impatient gesture; and at that moment
Blunt--who could restrain himself no longer--came up.

"Fine night, Mr. Frere?"

"Yes, fine enough."

"No signs of a breeze yet, though."

"No, not yet."

Just then, from out of the violet haze that hung over the horizon, a
strange glow of light broke.

"Hallo," cries Frere, "did you see that?"

All had seen it, but they looked for its repetition in vain. Blunt
rubbed his eyes.

"I saw it," he said, "distinctly. A flash of light." They strained their
eyes to pierce through the obscurity.

"Best saw something like it before dinner. There must be thunder in the
air."

At that instant a thin streak of light shot up and then sank again.
There was no mistaking it this time, and a simultaneous exclamation
burst from all on deck. From out the gloom which hung over the horizon
rose a column of flame that lighted up the night for an insta