was
d'Alcacer. He let Lingard and Mrs. Travers come quite close up to him.
Extreme surprise seemed to have made him dumb.

"You didn't expect . . ." began Mrs. Travers with some embarrassment
before that mute attitude.

"I doubted my eyes," struck in d'Alcacer, who seemed embarrassed, too.
Next moment he recovered his tone and confessed simply: "At the moment
I wasn't thinking of you, Mrs. Travers." He passed his hand over his
forehead. "I hardly know what I was thinking of."

In the light of the shooting-up flame Mrs. Travers could see d'Alcacer's
face. There was no smile on it. She could not remember ever seeing him
so grave and, as it were, so distant. She abandoned Lingard's arm and
moved closer to the fire.

"I fancy you were very far away, Mr. d'Alcacer," she said.

"This is the sort of freedom of which nothing can deprive us," he
observed, looking hard at the manner in which the scarf was drawn across
Mrs. Travers' face. "It's possible I was far away," he went on, "but I
can assure you that I don't know where I was. Less than an hour ago we
had a great excitement here about some rockets, but I didn't share in
it. There was no one I could ask a question of. The captain here was,
I understood, engaged in a most momentous conversation with the king or
the governor of this place."

He addressed Lingard, directly. "May I ask whether you have reached any
conclusion as yet? That Moor is a very dilatory person, I believe."

"Any direct attack he would, of course, resist," said Lingard. "And, so
far, you are protected. But I must admit that he is rather angry with
me. He's tired of the whole business. He loves peace above anything in
the world. But I haven't finished with him yet."

"As far as I understood from what you told me before," said Mr.
d'Alcacer, with a quick side glance at Mrs. Travers' uncovered and
attentive eyes, "as far as I can see he may get all the peace he wants
at once by driving us two, I mean Mr. Travers and myself, out of the
gate on to the spears of those other enraged barbarians. And there are
some of his counsellors who advise him to do that very thing no later
than the break of day I understand."

Lingard stood for a moment perfectly motionless.

"That's about it," he said in an unemotional tone, and went away with
a heavy step without giving another look at d'Alcacer and Mrs. Travers,
who after a moment faced each other.

"You have heard?" said d'Alcacer. "Of course that doesn't a