dding a kindly word or two as he passed.

He made his way with difficulty across the slippery deck. The cordage
sang a wild song about him, the spray leaped stinging against his face,
and the vessel groaned in every plank and spar.

In the shelter of the forecastle there was comparative quiet and safety.
A figure wrapped in a cloak was standing in the deepest shadow, and
moved towards him as he came up. He could hardly believe his senses. It
was Marguerite!

"My love!" he exclaimed, folding her tenderly in his arms, and drawing
her farther back into the shelter. "That you should be here, and in such
a storm!"

As he spoke, a wave struck the vessel amidships, sent the spray in a
shower over them, and fell with a great thud at their feet.

"That was a narrow escape," Claude went on. "Had we been a foot nearer
the stern we should have been dashed against the bulwarks, and the whole
ship would have known of our meeting here. But what has brought you out,
my darling? Is anything wrong? I shudder when I think of the risks you
must have run in getting here in this wind."

"The storm is glorious, Claude, and a little salt water will not hurt
me. I could not stay below. You will think me foolish, but I had a dream
about you--such a dreadful dream that I felt as if I must come to see
that you were safe. I thought I saw you in the toils of a monstrous
serpent. It had wound itself about you, and seemed to be crushing you in
its folds. I tried to tear it off, but it seized you the closer; and as
I stood back and gazed at it in horror it seemed to take the form and
features of that wretched creature in green who follows my uncle about
all day like a whipped cur."

"Sweetheart," said her lover, "it was a blessed dream, since it brought
you to me. It gives me new life to see you. But I do not wonder that the
sight of that fellow should give you nightmare. The first time I saw him
I could not help christening him the sea-serpent. His baleful eye seems
to be always upon me. If I should meet him to-night I should be tempted
to send him back to the ocean depths from whence he looks as if he had
but lately come."

"Dear, do not joke about him. I am not superstitious, but I fear that
man, and would have you be on your guard against him. It was to warn you
about him that I risked coming to you to-night."

She was much agitated, and Claude soothed and comforted her, wrapping
her cloak about her to shield her from the storm, and reass