t to the shore, travelled down to the harbour where
the men-of-war were careening towards the reefs, unable to make the
passage out, and once again he tied a rope about him and plunged into
the surf to try for the admiral's ship. He got there terribly battered.
They tell how a big wave lifted him and landed him upon the quarter-deck
just as big waves are not expected to do. Well, like the hero in any
melodrama of the kind, he very prettily piloted monsieur the admiral and
his fleet out to the open sea."

She paused, smiling in an inscrutable sort of way, then turned and said
with a sudden softness in her voice, though still with the air of one
who wished not to be taken with too great a seriousness: "And,
ladies and gentlemen, the name of the ship that led the way was the
'Porcupine'; and the name of the hero was Commander Galt Roscoe, R.N.;
and 'of such is the kingdom of heaven!'"

There was silence for a moment. The tale had been told adroitly, and
with such tact as to words that Roscoe could not take offence--need
not, indeed, as he did not, I believe, feel any particular
self-consciousness. I am not sure but he was a little glad that such
evidence should have been given at the moment, when a kind of restraint
had come between him and Ruth, by one who he had reason to think was
not wholly his friend might be his enemy. It was a kind of offset to his
premonitions and to the peril over which he might stumble at any moment.

To me the situation was almost inexplicable; but the woman herself was
inexplicable: at this moment the evil genius of us all, at that doing us
all a kind of crude, superior justice. I was the first to speak.

"Roscoe," I said, "I never had heard of this, although I remember the
circumstance as told in the newspapers. But I am glad and proud that I
have a friend with such a record."

"And, only think," said Mrs. Falchion, "he actually was not
court-martialled for abandoning his ship to save an admiral and a fleet.
But the ways of the English Admiralty are wonderful. They go out of
their way to avoid a court-martial sometimes, and they go out of their
way to establish it sometimes."

By this time we had started towards the mill. Roscoe walked ahead with
Ruth Devlin. Mr. Devlin, Mrs. Falchion, Justine Caron and myself walked
together.

Mrs. Falchion presently continued, talking, as it seemed to me, at the
back of Roscoe's head:

"I have known the Admiralty to force an officer to resign the na