tion of the island. She caught only a
few words referring to the neighbouring volcano, but there were enough
to arouse her suspicions--"which," went on Davidson, "she imparted to
me, your Excellency. They were only too well founded!"

"That was very clever of her," remarked the great man.

"She's much cleverer than people have any conception of," said Davidson.

But he refrained from disclosing to the Excellency the real cause which
had sharpened Mrs. Schomberg's wits. The poor woman was in mortal terror
of the girl being brought back within reach of her infatuated Wilhelm.
Davidson only said that her agitation had impressed him; but he
confessed that while going back, he began to have his doubts as to there
being anything in it.

"I steamed into one of those silly thunderstorms that hang about the
volcano, and had some trouble in making the island," narrated Davidson.
"I had to grope my way dead slow into Diamond Bay. I don't suppose that
anybody, even if looking out for me, could have heard me let go the
anchor."

He admitted that he ought to have gone ashore at once; but everything
was perfectly dark and absolutely quiet. He felt ashamed of his
impulsiveness. What a fool he would have looked, waking up a man in the
middle of the night just to ask him if he was all right! And then the
girl being there, he feared that Heyst would look upon his visit as an
unwarrantable intrusion.

The first intimation he had of there being anything wrong was a big
white boat, adrift, with the dead body of a very hairy man inside,
bumping against the bows of his steamer. Then indeed he lost no time in
going ashore--alone, of course, from motives of delicacy.

"I arrived in time to see that poor girl die, as I have told your
Excellency," pursued Davidson. "I won't tell you what a time I had with
him afterwards. He talked to me. His father seems to have been a crank,
and to have upset his head when he was young. He was a queer chap.
Practically the last words he said to me, as we came out on the veranda,
were:

"'Ah, Davidson, woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young
to hope, to love--and to put its trust in life!'

"As we stood there, just before I left him, for he said he wanted to be
alone with his dead for a time, we heard a snarly sort of voice near the
bushes by the shore calling out:

"'Is that you, governor?'

"'Yes, it's me.'

"'Jeeminy! I thought the beggar had done for you. He has started
prancing