ss Percy's feet.

"I should have relieved you long ago," I told him.

He smiled. The moon, now high in the heavens, shone upon and softened
his rugged features. I thought I had never seen a face so filled with
tenderness and hope and a sort of patient power. "I have been with God,"
he said simply. "The starry skies and the great ocean and the little
shells beneath my hand,--how wonderful are thy works, O Lord! What is
man that thou art mindful of him? And yet not a sparrow falleth"--I rose
and sat by the fire, and he laid himself down upon the sand beside me.

"Master Sparrow," I asked, "have you ever suffered thirst?"

"No," he answered. We spoke in low tones, lest we should wake her.
Diccon and my lord, upon the other side of the fire, were sleeping
heavily.

"I have," I said. "Once I lay upon a field of battle throughout a summer
day, sore wounded and with my dead horse across my body. I shall forget
the horror of that lost field and the torment of that weight before I
forget the thirst."

"You think there is no hope?"

"What hope should there be?"

He was silent. Presently he turned and looked at the King's ward where
she lay in the rosy light; then his eyes came back to mine.

"If it comes to the worst I shall put her out of her torment," I said.

He bowed his head and we sat in silence, our gaze upon the ground
between us, listening to the low thunder of the surf and the crackling
of the fire. "I love her," I said at last. "God help me!"

He put his finger to his lips. She had stirred and opened her eyes. I
knelt beside her, and asked her how she did and if she wanted aught.

"It is warm," she said wonderingly.

"You are no longer in the boat," I told her. "You are safe upon the
land. You have been sleeping here by the fire that we kindled."

An exquisite smile just lit her face, and her eyelids drooped again.
"I am so tired," she said drowsily, "that I will sleep a little longer.
Will you bring me some water, Captain Percy? I am very thirsty."

After a moment I said gently, "I will go get it, madam." She made no
answer; she was already asleep. Nor did Sparrow and I speak again. He
laid himself down with his face to the ocean, and I sat with my head in
my hands, and thought and thought, to no purpose.

CHAPTER XXI IN WHICH A GRAVE IS DIGGED

WHEN the stars had gone out and the moon begun to pale, I raised my face
from my hands. Only a few glowing embers remained of the fire, and the
drift