other as time passed. She understood me, or, at least, gave me the
impression that she understood me. Little by little that capricious mood
which I have heretofore described changed into one of enduring
sympathy. With one trivial exception, this lasted until the end. But for
her help my mind would hardly have stood the strain of events which were
now at hand, whose livid shadows were projected in the rising fire of
Brande's relentless eyes.

Brande appeared to lose interest gradually in his ship's company. He
became daily more and more absorbed in his own thoughts. Natalie was
ever gentle, even tender. But I chafed at the impalpable barrier which
was always between us. Sometimes I thought that she would willingly have
ranged herself on my side. Some hidden power held her back. As to the
others, I began to like the boy Halley. He was lovable, if not athletic.
His devotion to Natalie, which never waned, did not now trouble me. It
was only a friendship, and I welcomed it. Had it been anything more, it
was not likely that he would have prevailed against the will of a man
who had done murder for his mistress. We steamed through the Malay
Archipelago, steering north, south, east, west, as if at haphazard,
until only the navigating officers and the director of the Society knew
how our course lay. We were searching for an island about the bearings
of which, it transpired, some mistake had been made. I do not know
whether the great laureate ever sailed these seas. But I know that his
glorious islands of flowers and islands of fruit, with all their
luscious imagery, were here eclipsed by our own islands of foliage. The
long lagoons, the deep blue bays, the glittering parti-coloured fish
that swam in visible shoals deep down amidst the submerged coral groves
over which we passed, the rich-toned sea-weeds and brilliant anemones,
the yellow strands and the steep cliffs, the riotous foliage that swept
down from the sky to the blue of the sea; all these natural beauties
seemed to cry to me with living voices--to me bound on a cruise of
universal death.

After a long spell of apparently aimless but glorious steaming, a small
island was sighted on our port bow. The _Esmeralda_ was steered directly
for it, and we dropped anchor in a deep natural harbour on its southern
shore. Preparations for landing had been going on during the day, and
everything was ready for quitting the ship.

It was here that my first opportunity for making use