a few days before, he was of all men, the most alert, the most
ingenious, the most courageous, the most ambitious; while now, he lived
in dreams, which he evoked as persistently as the witch of Endor evoked
the ghost of Saul. His nature had undergone a revolution, in which he
gloried. Had he been poor, he would not have accepted his sudden
enervation without a struggle. But he was rich--thank God! rich--and
rejoiced that he was to gratify his new-born languor.

His son alone had access to his luxurious cabin. That boy, who had been
the ready and ignorant accomplice of his father's picturesque villainy,
had already begun to grow thin with shame. He saw his father transformed
from a virile into a sleek man. He himself had changed during the few
days of his knowledge of the secret from a pliant boy into a silent
accusation. The Colonel could not look his son straight in the eyes.
This was the first warning to his diseased mind that he was not the
greatest man of his age.

The Colonel had moreover a sense of security that unapprehended
malefactors cannot feel. The pledge of the United States Government had
been solemnly given. He could not be punished. His freedom was assured.
Whenever he paced the deck, he filled his lungs with the pure, salt air,
and allowed them to expand without stint. There was nothing contracted
on his horizon. True, he had lost his country--but he had gained wealth.
He felt sure of admiration, and of some applause. He remembered that an
unextradited bank-robber had purchased a barony from the King of
Wuertemburg, and had lived there much respected. What position might he
not buy with his American gold?

Still, he was haunted by a feeling of mingled dissatisfaction and unrest
that marred the pride he felt in his own achievement. Was it due to his
son's speechless denunciation? Or did it come from the fact that his
authority seemed to be impaired? There was no insubordination nor mutiny
among the sailors. It had not gone so far as that, with the well-paid
and well-fed men. Perhaps it never would. But men do not easily obey a
scoundrel or an outlaw except when it is understood that they are felons
themselves.

In a certain sense the crew of the "Lightning" rejoiced in their
master's superb feat. The venom of piracy had entered their veins. They
firmly believed that Colonel Odminton would soon cast off his mask, and
turn the most wonderful product of marine architecture into an
irresistible pirate c