lowed her head
upon her arm and went to sleep in that blessed warmth like a little
child.

We who had no mind for sleep sat there beside the fire and watched the
sun sink behind the low black line of the mainland, now plainly visible
in the cleared air. It dyed the waves blood red, and shot out one long
ray to crimson a single floating cloud, no larger than a man's hand,
high in the blue. Sea birds, a countless multitude, went to and fro with
harsh cries from island to marsh, and marsh to island. The marshes were
still green; they lay, a half moon of fantastic shapes, each parted from
the other by pink water. Beyond them was the inlet dividing us from
the mainland, and that inlet was three leagues in width. We turned and
looked seaward. Naught but leaping waves white-capped to the horizon.

"We touched here the time we went against the French at Port Royal and
St. Croix," I said. "We had heard a rumor that the Bermuda pirates had
hidden gold here. Argall and I went over every foot of it."

"And found no water?" questioned the minister.

"And found no water."

The light died from the west and from the sea beneath, and the night
fell. When with the darkness the sea fowl ceased their clamor, a
dreadful silence suddenly enfolded us. The rush of the surf made no
difference; the ear heard it, but to the mind there was no sound. The
sky was thick with stars; every moment one shot, and the trail of white
fire it left behind melted into the night silently like snowflakes.
There was no wind. The moon rose out of the sea, and lent the sandy isle
her own pallor. Here and there, back amongst the dunes, the branches of
a low and leafless tree writhed upward like dark fingers thrust from out
the spectral earth. The ocean, quiet now, dreamed beneath the moon and
cared not for the five lives it had cast upon that span of sand.

We piled driftwood and tangles of seaweed upon our fire, and it flamed
and roared and broke the silence. Diccon, going to the landward side of
the islet, found some oysters, which we roasted and ate; but we had nor
wine nor water with which to wash them down.

"At least there are here no foes to fear," quoth my lord. "We may all
sleep to-night; and zooks! we shall need it!" He spoke frankly, with an
open face.

"I will take one watch, if you will take the other," I said to the
minister.

He nodded. "I will watch until midnight."

It was long past that time when he roused me from where I lay at
Mistre