l was
becoming once more a stranger. He would never know why she had loved
him so spontaneously and so ardently; why a nature in which instinct
must needs play so imperious a part had found room for such noble
feelings, humility and delicacy and devotion.

In the earliest moments of the dawn he gave the aeroplane a final
examination. After a few tests which gave him good hopes of success,
he went back to the dwelling by the lake. But Dolores was gone. For an
hour he searched for her and called to her in vain. She had
disappeared without even leaving a footprint in the sand.

On rising above the clouds into the immensity of a clear sky all
flooded with sunlight, Simon uttered a cry of joy. The mysterious
Dolores meant nothing to him now, no more than all the dangers braved
with her or all those which might still lie in wait for him. He had
surmounted every obstacle, escaped every snare. He had been victorious
in every contest; and perhaps his greatest victory was that of
resisting Dolores' enchantment.

It was ended. Isabel had triumphed. Nothing stood between her and him.
He held the steering-wheel well under control. The motor was working
to perfection. The map and the compass were before his eyes. At the
point indicated, at the exact spot, neither too much to the right nor
too much to the left, neither overshooting nor falling short of the
mark, he would descend within a radius of a hundred yards.

The flight certainly took less than the forty minutes which he had
allowed for. In thirty at most he covered the distance, without seeing
anything but the moving sea of clouds rolling beneath him in white
billows. All he could do now was to fling himself upon it. After
stopping his engine, he drew closer and closer, describing great
circles. Cries or rather shouts and roars rose from the ground, as
though multitudes were gathered together. Then he entered the rolling
mist, through which he continued to wheel like a bird of prey.

He never doubted Rolleston's presence, nor the imminence of the fight
which would ensue between them, nor its favourable outcome, followed
by Isabel's release. But he dreaded the landing, the critical rock on
which he might split.

The sight of the ground showing clear of the mist reassured him. A
wide and, as it seemed to him, almost flat space lay spread like an
arena, in which he saw nothing but four disks of sand which must
represent so many mounds and which could be easily avoided. The