She went to the rail. He followed her.

"I shouldn't have let you, but I was so tired," she said, "I hardly knew
where the dream began and the reality ended. Ah, I wish the dream could
come true."

"This one is to come true, Cara," he whispered.

She shook her head. "Stand still!" she commanded.

He was bending forward with his elbows on the rail. Suddenly, with
something like a stifled sob, she caught his head in both arms and held
him close, so close that he heard her heart pounding and her breath
coming with spasmodic gasps. He put out his arms, but she held him off.

"No, no; don't touch me now--only listen!"

He waited a moment before she spoke again.

"You said I was your prisoner." Her voice dropped in a tremor as though
the tears would prevail, but she steadied it and went on. "I wish I
were. Always I am your prisoner, but I must go back. It is because it is
written."

He straightened up and took her in his arms. "I know how you have
settled it," he said, "but I have stolen you. The anchor is coming up.
You love me--I have claimed what is mine. It is now beyond your power,
your responsibility."

"No, it is not," she softly denied. "I will not marry you--but I love
you--I love you!"

"You mean that if I hold you my prisoner you will still not be my wife?"
he incredulously demanded.

Slowly she nodded her head.

The man gazed off with the eyes of one stunned and slowly fought himself
back into control before he trusted his voice. After a while, he raised
his face and spoke in fragmentary sentences, his voice pitched low, his
words broken.

"But you said--just now--back there on the road--you wished someone
stronger than yourself--would take you away somewhere--beyond the Milky
Way."

His tones strengthened and suddenly he almost sang out with recovered
resolution, speaking buoyantly and triumphantly.

"Dearest, I am stronger than you, and I'm going to take you away--I'm
going to take you beyond the Milky Way, to the uttermost stars of Love.
How can it matter to me how far, if you are there?"

Again she shook her head.

"No, dear," she whispered, "you are not so strong as I, in this, because
I am strong enough to say No when my heart says only Yes--and because
Fate is stronger than any of us."

"Boat ahoy!" came a voice from the crow's nest.

"They have come for you," he said, speaking as through a fog. "Show them
here," he shouted to an officer who was hurrying to the gangway.

Two figu