nd take your hand--"

"And why didn't you? I knew you were weak from your wound, and it would
have been a charity in me to cheer you up."

"Divine charity--but I was not weak--not from any wound. I had not the
courage. A sailor may shape his course by a star, but that does not mean
that he ever thinks of reaching up and trying to grasp it."

"And you've heard the sea whisper, too, Guy?"

"Many a time. In the night mostly--in the mid-watch, when it's quietest.
I've leant over the rail and heard it whisper up to me. People laugh at
that, but they know nothing of the sea. And the day, or the night, comes
to some men, when she whispers up to him and beckons with her wide arms
and on her deep bosom offers to pillow him, and weary of the
wrong-doing, mostly it's wrong-doing, or despair, when men hear
it--weary, weary to death, they are glad to--"

"No, no--no, Guy--you must never go like that!"

"But when a man's alone?"

She rested her chin on my shoulder, she reached a hand down to mine.
"You will not be alone, dear--never, never again."

A voice from above recalled me. "Guy! O Guy! If you can make shift to
come on deck, you would do well. We are in close quarters and like to
be yet closer."

I looked up, not in full time, but in time to catch a glint of his eyes.
Pain in his voice, suffering in his eyes--never till that moment did it
come to me that this whole cruise had been but a wooing of Shiela
Cunningham. And I, who owed him everything in life, I had stood in his
way. And even with Shiela there my heart ached for him.

VI

When I made the deck I saw that off each beam was an American frigate,
and ahead was the land--the coast of Georgia.

No doubt of what they were after. The _Bess_ was a much-desired prize,
and known as far as a long glass could shape her lines or pick her rig.
"But there is yet time, sir," I suggested, "to put about, run between
them, and escape to the open sea."

"There _is_ time," he answered curtly. He had not looked fairly at me
since I came on deck. "But I am going to land our passengers, and
without risk of their capture."

I thought that he had in mind to hold up for the mouth of the Savannah
River, and run on up the river to the city. He could do that, though it
would mean the final abandonment of the brigantine and, most likely, the
identification of Captain Blaise with Mr. Villard of Villard Manor.

Though these were two fast-sailing frigates, we were outrunning them,