rible fixity, above the great flame, the next instant all was
blackness to their dazzled eyes. The light of Scarthey was out!

She groped for Rene; her hot fingers burnt upon his cold rough hand
for a second.

"I will go down to the sands," she said, whispering as if she feared,
even here, the keenness of Rupert's ear, "and you--hurry to him, stop
with him, defend him, your master's friend!"

She flitted from him like a shadow, the ladder creaked faintly beneath
her light footfall, and then louder beneath his weighty tread.

His master's friend!

Ay, he would stand by him, for his master's sake and for his own sake
too--the good gentleman!--And they would get him safe out of the way
before his honour's return.

* * * * *

Out upon the beach ran Molly.

It was a mild still night; through veils of light mist the moon shone
with a tranquil bride-like grace upon the heaving palpitating waters
and the mystery of the silent land.

A very night for lovers, it seemed; for sweet meetings and sweeter
partings; a night that mocked with its great passionless calm at the
wild anguish of this woman's impatience. Yet a night upon which sound
travelled far. She bent her ear--was there nothing to hear yet,
nothing but the lap of the restless waters? Were those men false?

She rushed to and fro, from one point to another along the sands in a
delirium of impotent desire.

Oh, hurry, hurry, hurry!

And as she turned again, there, upon the waters out in the offing,
glimmered a light, curtseying with the swell of the waves; the sails
of a ship caught the moonbeams. She could see the vessel plainly and
that it was bearing full for the island. Alas! This might scarcely be
the little Shearman boat manned by two fishermen only; even she,
unversed in sea knowledge could tell that. It was as large as the
_Peregrine_ itself--certainly as large as the cutter.

The _cutter_!

She caught her breath, and clapped her hands to her lips to choke down
the wild scream of fear that rose to them.

At the same instant, a dull thud of oars, a subdued murmur of a deep
voice rose from the other side of the island.

They were coming, coming from the landward, these rescuers of her
beloved. And yonder, with swelling canvas, came the hell ship from out
the open sea, sent by Rupert's infernal malice and cleverness, to make
their help of no avail; to seize him, in the very act of flight.

She ran in the direction of