doors and windows, and made the flame of the
torches stream sideways. The music grew madder and madder, the shots
more frequent, the drunken voices thicker and louder.

The master of the feast carried his wine better than did his guests,
or had drunk less, but his spirit too was quite without bounds. A color
burned in his cheeks, a wicked light in his eyes; he laughed to himself.
In the gray smoke cloud he saw me not, or saw me only as one of the many
who thronged the doorway and stared at the revel within. He raised his
silver cup with a slow and wavering hand. "Drink, you dogs!" he chanted.
"Drink to the Santa Teresa! Drink to to-morrow night! Drink to a proud
lady within my arms and an enemy in my power!"

The wine that had made him mad had maddened those others, also. In that
hour they were dead to honor. With shameless laughter and as little
spilling as might be, they raised their tankards as my lord raised his.
A stone thrown by some one behind me struck the cup from my lord's hand,
sending it clattering to the floor and dashing him with the red wine.
Master Pory roared with drunken laughter. "Cup and lip missed that
time!" he cried.

The man who had thrown the stone was Jeremy Sparrow. For one instant
I saw his great figure, and the wrathful face beneath his shock of
grizzled hair; the next he had made his way through the crowd of gaping
menials and was gone.

My lord stared foolishly at the stains upon his hands, at the fallen
goblet and the stone beside it. "Cogged dice," he said thickly, "or
I had not lost that throw! I'll drink that toast by myself to-morrow
night, when the ship does n't rock like this d--d floor, and the sea
has no stones to throw. More wine, Giles! To my Lord High Admiral,
gentlemen! To his Grace of Buckingham! May he shortly howl in hell, and
looking back to Whitehall see me upon the King's bosom! The King 's a
good king, gentlemen! He gave me this ruby. D' ye know what I had of him
last year? I"--

I turned and left the door and the house. I could not thrust a fight
upon a drunken man.

Ten yards away, suddenly and without any warning of his approach, I
found beside me the Indian Nantauquas. "I have been to the woods to
hunt," he said, in the slow musical English Rolfe had taught him. "I
knew where a panther lodged, and to-day I laid a snare, and took him
in it. I brought him to my brother's house, and caged him there. When I
have tamed him, I shall give him to the beautiful lady."