illusion of sorcery.

And then, as if the submarine had been indeed a sentient, living thing,
the _Neptune_ lifted her great shield-like back up out of the sea and
glided through the narrow neck of the bay, and so close under the long
deck on which Madame de Wissant and her companion were standing.

The eager, busy hum of work slackened--discipline is not perhaps quite
so taut in the French as it is in the British Navy--for both men and
officers were one and all eager to see the lady who had ventured out in
the _Neptune_ with their commander. Only those actually on board had
seen Madame Baudoin embark; there was a long, rough jetty close to her
house, the lonely Chalet des Dunes, and it was from there the submarine
had picked up her honoured passenger.

But when Commander Dupre's stern, sun-burnt face suddenly appeared above
the conning tower, the men vanished as if by enchantment, while the
eager, busy hum began again, much as if a lever, setting this human
machinery in motion, had been touched by some titanic finger.

The officers naturally held their ground.

There was a look of strain in the Commander's blue eyes, and his mouth
was set in hard lines; a thoughtful onlooker would have suspected that
the exciting, dangerous life he led was trying his nerves. His men knew
better; still, though they had no clue to the cause which had changed
him, they all knew he had changed greatly of late; to them individually
he had become kinder, more human, and that heightened their regret that
he was now quitting the Northern Flotilla.

Commander Dupre had asked to be transferred to the Toulon Submarine
Station; some experiments were being made there which he was anxious to
watch. He was leaving Falaise on the morrow.

Claire de Wissant reddened, and a gleam leapt into her eyes as she met
the naval officer's grave, measuring glance. But very soon he looked
away from her, for now he was bending down, putting out a hand to help
his late passenger to step from the conning tower.

Smiling, breathless, a little dishevelled, her grey linen skirt
crumpled, Madame Baudoin looked round her, dazed for the moment by the
bright sunlight. Then she called out gaily:

"Well, Claire! Here I am--alive and very, very hot!"

And as she jumped off the slippery flank of the _Neptune_, she gave
herself and her crumpled gown a little shake, and made a slight, playful
grimace.

The bright young faces round her broke into broad grins--those of