ow, on what occasion? Mrs. Travers stood up in the stern sheets
suddenly and d'Alcacer leaped on the sand to help her out of the boat.

"Hadn't I better hang about here to take you back again?" he suggested,
as he let go her hand.

"You mustn't!" she exclaimed, anxiously. "You must return to the yacht.
There will be plenty of light in another hour. I will come to this spot
and wave my handkerchief when I want to be taken off."

At their feet the shallow water slept profoundly, the ghostly gleam of
the sands baffled the eye by its lack of form. Far off, the growth of
bushes in the centre raised a massive black bulk against the stars to
the southward. Mrs. Travers lingered for a moment near the boat as if
afraid of the strange solitude of this lonely sandbank and of this lone
sea that seemed to fill the whole encircling universe of remote stars
and limitless shadows. "There is nobody here," she whispered to herself.

"He is somewhere about waiting for you, or I don't know the man,"
affirmed d'Alcacer in an undertone. He gave a vigorous shove which sent
the little boat into the water.

D'Alcacer was perfectly right. Lingard had come up on deck long before
Mrs. Travers woke up with her face wet with tears. The burial party had
returned hours before and the crew of the brig were plunged in
sleep, except for two watchmen, who at Lingard's appearance retreated
noiselessly from the poop. Lingard, leaning on the rail, fell into
a sombre reverie of his past. Reproachful spectres crowded the air,
animated and vocal, not in the articulate language of mortals but
assailing him with faint sobs, deep sighs, and fateful gestures. When he
came to himself and turned about they vanished, all but one dark shape
without sound or movement. Lingard looked at it with secret horror.

"Who's that?" he asked in a troubled voice.

The shadow moved closer: "It's only me, sir," said Carter, who had left
orders to be called directly the Captain was seen on deck.

"Oh, yes, I might have known," mumbled Lingard in some confusion. He
requested Carter to have a boat manned and when after a time the young
man told him that it was ready, he said "All right!" and remained
leaning on his elbow.

"I beg your pardon, sir," said Carter after a longish silence, "but are
you going some distance?"

"No, I only want to be put ashore on the sandbank."

Carter was relieved to hear this, but also surprised. "There is nothing
living there, sir," he said.