tilted the control, as if to watch the action, and
suddenly, to the amazement of all the spectators, what had been an
unusual looking double-decked motor-boat sprang out of the harbour into
the air. It rose gracefully and gradually to a height of perhaps four
hundred feet, flying as if it aimed straight for the far-distant
pearl-cluster of Bordighera, on the Italian coast.

Vanno had an extraordinary sensation, as if his heart stopped beating,
and as if at the same time an iron band across his chest stopped the
expansion of his lungs. It was such a sensation as a man might have in
the moment of death, and it was so unlike anything he had ever felt
before that, for a few seconds of physical agony, he asked himself
dazedly what was the matter. Then, suddenly, he knew that he was
afraid--afraid for the girl. And he hated Carleton for risking her life.
He felt a savage longing to do the young airman some bodily injury as a
punishment for what he, Vanno, was made to suffer.

The relief was so great when the _Flying Fish_ dropped slowly down and
settled again into the water that Vanno was slightly giddy with the rush
of blood through his veins. He watched the hydro-aeroplane turn and head
back for the mouth of Monaco harbour; and it seemed to him that he had
lived through years in a few minutes, as one can have a lifetime's
experience in one short dream. He sickened as he thought what would be
his feelings now if the machine had fallen and turned over, too far off
for any hope of rescue from land. If those "eyes like stars" had been
closed until eternity, with no hope that he could ever learn the secret
of the soul behind them, nothing the future might have to give could
make up for the loss. It was only when the _Flying Fish_ swam safely
into the harbour that Vanno remembered his irritation at seeing Mary
with all those men, the only woman among them. After what he had gone
through since then, this annoyance seemed a ridiculously small thing;
but no sooner was she on land again, received with acclamations from
her new friends and applause by the crowd which had quickly collected,
than Vanno felt the same tingling anger.

The girl was making herself notorious! At this rate she would be talked
of everywhere. Strangers would snapshot her as she passed. Her picture
would be for sale on one of those Monte Carlo postcards of celebrities
which were newly taken every day; she would be in the local English
illustrated newspaper. He