"Shot," said Attwater. "They came to the ground together."

Herrick sprang to his feet with a shriek and an insensate gesture.

"It was a murder!" he screamed, "a cold-hearted, bloody-minded murder!
You monstrous being! Murderer and hypocrite--murderer and
hypocrite--murderer and hypocrite----" he repeated, and his tongue
stumbled among the words.

The captain was by him in a moment. "Herrick!" he cried, "behave
yourself! Here, don't be a blame' fool!"

Herrick struggled in his embrace like a frantic child, and suddenly
bowing his face in his hands, choked into a sob, the first of many,
which now convulsed his body silently, and now jerked from him
indescribable and meaningless sounds.

"Your friend appears over-excited," remarked Attwater, sitting unmoved
but all alert at table.

"It must be the wine," replied the captain. "He ain't no drinking man,
you see. I--I think I'll take him away. A walk'll sober him up, I
guess."

He led him without resistance out of the verandah and into the night, in
which they soon melted; but still for some time, as they drew away, his
comfortable voice was to be heard soothing and remonstrating, and
Herrick answering, at intervals, with the mechanical noises of hysteria.

"'E's like a bloomin' poultry yard!" observed Huish, helping himself to
wine (of which he spilled a good deal) with gentlemanly ease. "A man
should learn to beyave at table," he added.

"Rather bad form, is it not?" said Attwater. "Well, well, we are left
_tete-a-tete_. A glass of wine with you, Mr. Whish!"

CHAPTER X

THE OPEN DOOR

The captain and Herrick meanwhile turned their back upon the lights in
Attwater's verandah, and took a direction towards the pier and the beach
of the lagoon.

The isle, at this hour, with its smooth floor of sand, the pillared roof
overhead, and the prevalent illumination of the lamps, wore an air of
unreality, like a deserted theatre or a public garden at midnight. A man
looked about him for the statues and tables. Not the least air of wind
was stirring among the palms, and the silence was emphasised by the
continuous clamour of the surf from the seashore, as it might be of
traffic in the next street.

Still talking, still soothing him, the captain hurried his patient on,
brought him at last to the lagoon side, and leading him down the beach,
laved his head and face with the tepid water. The paroxysm gradually
subsided, the sobs became less convulsive and then