's right on our own place. I 'm
thinkin' yon light--not the fire, the one we saw first--is our ain
kitchen fire. Mony 's the time I 've been seein' it an' me out fishin'
here."

"But the fireplace doesn't face the door," wondering to himself why it
was he discussed such things now.

"Naw, but there 's a bit mirror agin the wall, it reflects things. Oh,
mony's the time I've seen it. Mither, she wanted it in the parlour; but
Susy, she was saying we were living in the kitchen, and it made things
brighter like. Dad, he was for sayin' it was a snare o' the Evil One;
but Susy, she had her way."

So after all it was his sweetheart's natural girlish longing after
pretty bright things that had lured them to destruction. Should he
die to-night it was her innocent hand that had dealt the blow. The boy
beside him was thinking the same thing, and presently he said, "When she
comes to know, what'll she say?"

Harper said nothing. If it had been possible he would have prayed the
boy to keep the knowledge from her; but he knew it was not possible. If
any man escaped from this wreck, he would surely tell of the light
they had mistaken for the new leading mark, and if they all
perished--well--then there would be no need to plead for silence. The
sea keeps her own secrets.

"Susy is gone on ye, sir," said the boy again, "why wouldn't ye have
her?"

It hardly seemed strange to him now, the question he would have resented
fiercely at any other time.

"Have her!" he repeated, and looking down, he noted that the last wave
had left behind it a great crack in the deck, and he heard the skipper
moaning, "Oh, the poor barkie, the poor barkie!" and knew that he too
had seen it. "Have her? She wouldn't have me."

"But--but--she--"

"She didn't think I was good enough," explained Harper hastily.

"She told ye that!--oh, Lord! They 've been at her about that pious
psalm-singer Clement Scott. Ye try again when we get ashore. She's goin'
to stop a bit wi' Aunt Barnes, at South Yarra, this Christmas. T' auld
girl hates t' psalm-singer, an' she 'll do the job for ye. Oh, Lord! oh,
Lord! I 'm starved wi' the cold."

"It 's not so long now," said Harper, and suddenly he felt as if the
night were stretching itself into interminable years. The bar that Susy
had thought so hopeless, so insurmountable, was it really but a thing of
straw? Was there really a chance for him yet? Was there really anything
in the lad's careless words? And hope awoke