ering, ill! Ah, my God!" As if suffocating, she pressed her hand
upon her heart, and bowed her head till it rested on the table. And
then he heard her murmur in a weary voice:

"Recover at Pulwick! My God, my God! The air at Pulwick will stifle
me, I think."

He waited a moment in silence and saw that she was weeping. Then he
went out and closed the door behind him with gentle hand.

Nearly all the lights of the ship were now extinguished, and in a
gloom as great as that in which they had started upon their
unsuccessful venture, the _Peregrine_ and her crew returned to the
little island which had already been so fateful to them.

Captain Jack had taken the helm himself, and Curwen stood upon his
right hand waiting patiently for his commands. For an hour or so they
hung off the shore. The rain fell close and fine around them; it was
as if sea and sky were merging by slow imperceptible degrees into one.
The beacon light looming, halo encircled, through the mist, seemed,
like a monster eye, to watch with unmoved contempt the restlessness of
these pigmies in the grand solitude of the night.

Who shall say with what conflict of soul Molly, in her narrow
seclusion, saw the light of Scarthey grow out of the dimness till its
rays fell across the darkened cabin and glimmered on her wedding ring?

At last the captain drew his watch, and by the faint rays upon the
binnacle saw the hour had come.

"Boat loaded, Curwen?" he asked in a low voice.

"This hour, sir."

"Ready to cast?"

"Right, sir."

"Now, Curwen."

Low, from man to man, the order ran through the ship, and the anchor
was dropped, almost within a musket shot of the peel. It was high
tide, but no hand but Captain Jack's would have dared risk the vessel
so close. She swung round, ready to slip at a moment's notice.

He left the helm; and in the wet darkness cannoned against the burly
figure of his mate.

"You, Curwen? Remember we have not a moment to lose. Remain here--as
soon as the men are back from the last run, sheer off."

He grasped the horny hand.

Curwen made an inarticulate noise in his big throat, but the grip of
his fingers upon his master's was of eloquence sufficient.

"Let some one call the lady."

A couple of men ran forward with dark lanterns. The rest gathered
round.

"Now, my lads, brisk and silent is the word."

The cabin door opened, and Molly came forth, the darkness hid the
pallor of her face, but it could not hide the falt