that bare Northam churchyard there beyond the weary,
weary, weary sea."

His voice died away to a murmur, and his head sank on his breast.

Amyas stood spell-bound. The effect of the narcotic was all but
miraculous in his eyes. The sustained eloquence, the novel richness of
diction in one seemingly drowned in sensual sloth, were, in his eyes,
the possession of some evil spirit. And yet he could not answer the Evil
One. His English heart, full of the divine instinct of duty and public
spirit, told him that it must be a lie: but how to prove it a lie? And
he stood for full ten minutes searching for an answer, which seemed to
fly farther and farther off the more he sought for it.

His eye glanced upon Ayacanora. The two girls were whispering to her
smilingly. He saw one of them glance a look toward him, and then say
something, which raised a beautiful blush in the maiden's face. With a
playful blow at the speaker, she turned away. Amyas knew instinctively
that they were giving her the same advice as Ebsworthy had given to him.
Oh, how beautiful she was! Might not the renegades have some reason on
their side after all.

He shuddered at the thought: but he could not shake it off. It glided
in like some gaudy snake, and wreathed its coils round all his heart
and brain. He drew back to the other side of the lawn, and thought and
thought--

Should he ever get home? If he did, might he not get home a beggar?
Beggar or rich, he would still have to face his mother, to go through
that meeting, to tell that tale, perhaps, to hear those reproaches, the
forecast of which had weighed on him like a dark thunder-cloud for two
weary years; to wipe out which by some desperate deed of glory he had
wandered the wilderness, and wandered in vain.

Could he not settle here? He need not be a savage, he and his might
Christianize, civilize, teach equal law, mercy in war, chivalry to
women; found a community which might be hereafter as strong a barrier
against the encroachments of the Spaniard, as Manoa itself would have
been. Who knew the wealth of the surrounding forests? Even if there were
no gold, there were boundless vegetable treasures. What might he not
export down the rivers? This might be the nucleus of a great commercial
settlement--

And yet, was even that worth while? To settle here only to torment
his soul with fresh schemes, fresh ambitions; not to rest, but only to
change one labor for another? Was not your dreamer right? Di