" he cried. "_Thalassa, thalassa!_" (The sea, the sea!)

CHAPTER LIII

THE GREATER TREASURE

New York, months later.

Spring had long departed--the spring of the year in which the Eagle of
the Air had flung itself aloft from the Palisades, freighted with such
vast hopes.

Summer was past and gone. The sparkling wine of autumn had already
begun to bubble in the cup of the year.

Sunset, as when this tale began. Sunset, bronzing the observatory of
_Niss'rosh_, on top of the huge skyscraper.

Two of the Legionaries--a woman and a man--were watching that sunset
from the western windows of that room where first had been conceived
the wonder-flight which had spelled death for so many a stout heart.

You could see great changes had come upon the man, as he paced slowly
up and down the singular room, hands deep in the pockets of his
riding-trousers. His hair was grayer, for one thing, his face leaner;
a certain sinewy strength had come to him that had not been there
before.

Some marks of suffering still remained on him, that not all of life
could take away. His eyes looked deeper and more wise, his mouth more
human in its smile. That he had learned to smile, at all, meant much.
And the look in his eyes, as he glanced at the woman, meant vastly
more. Yes, this man had learned infinitely much.

From a big, bamboo Chinese chair the woman was watching him.

Her eyes were musing, reminiscent. Her riding-costume well became her;
and by the flush on her cheek you might have guessed they had both
just come in from a long gallop together.

The costume gave her a kind of boyish charm; yet she remained entirely
feminine. A kind of bronze mist seemed to envelop her head, as the
dull-tawny sunset light fell on her from those broad windows. Near her
riding-crop stood a Hindu incense-holder, with joss-sticks burning.
As she took one of these and twirled it contemplatively, the blue-gray
vapor spiraling upward was no more dreamy than her eyes.

"The invincible Orient!" she said, all at once. "It absorbs everything
and gives back nothing. And we thought, we hoped, we might conquer
part of it! Well--no--that's not done."

The man stopped his slow pacing, sat on the edge of the table and
drummed with his fingers on the teak.

"Not at the first attempt, anyhow," said he, after a little thought.
"I think, though, another time--but there's no use dreaming. Of
course, it's not the treasure I'm thinking about. That was just