met with the
stormy seas that vex poor mariners hereabouts. Those sails you see on
our quarter belong to our consort. We were separated by the hurricane
that nigh sunk us, and finally drove us, helpless as we were, toward
the Florida coast and across your path. For us that was a fortunate reef
upon which you dashed. The gods must have made your helmsman blind,
for he ran you into a destruction that gaped not for you. Why did every
wretch that we hung next morning curse you before he died?"

"If I told you, you would not believe me," I replied.

I was dizzy with the bliss of the air and the light, and it seemed a
small thing that he would not believe me. The wind sounded in my ears
like a harp, and the sea beckoned. A white bird flashed down into the
crystal hollow between two waves, hung there a second, then rose, a
silver radiance against the blue. Suddenly I saw a river, dark and
ridged beneath thunderclouds, a boat, and in it, her head pillowed upon
her arm, a woman, who pretended that she slept. With a shock my senses
steadied, and I became myself again. The sea was but the sea, the wind
the wind; in the hold below me lay my friend; somewhere in that ship was
my wife; and awaiting me in the state cabin were men who perhaps had
the will, as they had the right and the might, to hang me at the yardarm
that same hour.

"I have had my fill of rest," I said. "Whom am I to stand before?"

"The newly appointed officers of the Company, bound in this ship for
Virginia," he answered. "The ship carries Sir Francis Wyatt, the new
Governor; Master Davison, the Secretary; young Clayborne, the surveyor
general; the knight marshal, the physician general, and the Treasurer,
with other gentlemen, and with fair ladies, their wives and sisters. I
am George Sandys, the Treasurer."

The blood rushed to my face, for it hurt me that the brother of Sir
Edwyn Sandys should believe that the firing of those guns had been my
act. His was the trained observation of the traveler and writer, and he
probably read the color aright. "I pity you, if I can no longer esteem
you," he said, after a pause. "I know no sorrier sight than a brave
man's shield reversed."

I bit my lip and kept back the angry word. The next minute saw us at
the door of the state cabin. It opened, and my companion entered, and
I after him, with my two guards at my back. Around a large table were
gathered a number of gentlemen, some seated, some standing. There
were but two