passed us close, noisily shearing through it, with the white water
at her stem throbbing like clouds of steam to the paddles, whence the
race aft spread far into the gloom astern in a wide wake of yeast; a
body of fire broke from her tall chimney and illuminated the long,
thick line of smoke like the play of lightning upon the face of a
thunder-cloud; her saloon was aglow, and the illuminated portholes went
winking past upon the vision as though there lay a coil of flame along
the length of the ebony black sides. She swept past and was away,
leaving behind her a swell upon which the _Spitfire_ tumbled about so
violently that I came very near to being thrown out of the hatch in
which I was standing. The commotion presently ceased, and by this time
we were abreast of the longer of the two pier-heads, clear of the
harbour, but I waited still a moment or so to take another view of the
night and to send a glance round. Undoubtedly the stars shining low
down over the old town of Boulogne had dimmed greatly within the hour,
though they still flashed with brilliance in the direction of the
English coast. The surf rolling upon the sand on either side the piers
broke with a hollow note that even to my inexperienced ears seemed
prophetic of wind.

"What is the weather to be, Caudel?" I called to him.

"We're going to get a breeze from the south'ard, sir," he answered;
"nothing to harm, I dessay, if it don't draw westerly."

"What is your plan of sailing?"

"Can't do better, I think, sir, than stand over for the English coast,
and so run down, keeping the ports conveniently aboard."

"Do you mark the noise of the surf?"

"Ay, sir, that's along of this here ground swell."

I had hardly till this moment noticed the movement to which he
referred. The swell was long and light, setting in flowing rounds of
shadow dead on to the Boulogne shore, too rhythmically gentle to take
the attention.

I re-entered the cabin, and found my sweetheart with her elbows on the
table and her cheeks resting in her hands. The blush had scarcely
faded from her face when I had quitted her; now she was as white as a
lily.

"Why do you leave me alone, Herbert?" she asked, turning her dark,
liquid eyes upon me without shifting the posture of her head.

"My dearest, I wish to see our little ship clear of Boulogne harbour.
We shall be getting a pleasant breeze presently, and it cannot blow too
soon to please us. A brisk fair wind should land us