s. Not you, John Owen--not you. I do not like you."

She was unbalanced, of course; but the speech pained him immeasurably,
and he made no answer. He searched the clean-cut horizon for a moment,
and when he looked back she was close to him, with the infantile smile
on her face, candor and sanity in her gray eyes. Involuntarily he
extended his arms, and she nestled within them.

"You _will_ be married, Freda," he said; "you _will_ be married, and to
me."

He held her tightly and kissed her lips; but the kiss ended in a
crashing sound, and a shock of pain in his whole body which expelled
the breath from his lungs. The moonlit island, sandy beach, blue sea
and sky were swallowed in a blaze of light, which gave way to pitchy
darkness, with rain on his face and whistling wind in his ears, while
he clung with both arms, not to a girl, but to a hard, wet, and cold
mizzentopgallant-yard whose iron jack-stay had bumped him severely
between the eyes. Below him in the darkness a scream rang out, followed
by the roar of the mate: "Are you all right up there? Want any help?"

He had fallen four feet.

When he could speak he answered: "I'm all right, sir." And catching the
royal foot-rope dangling from the end of the yard above him, he brought
it to its place, passed the seizing, and finished furling the royal.
But it was a long job; his movements were uncertain, for every nerve in
his body was jumping in its own inharmonious key.

"What's the matter wi' you up there?" demanded the mate when he reached
the deck; and a yellow-clad figure drew near to listen.

"It was nothing, sir; I forgot about the foot-rope."

"You're a bigger lunkhead than I thought. Go forrard."

He went, and when he came aft at four bells to take his trick at the
wheel, the girl was still on deck, standing near the companionway,
facing forward. The mate stood at the other side of the binnacle,
looking at her, with one elbow resting on the house. There was just
light enough from the cabin skylight for Owen to see the expression
which came over his face as he watched the graceful figure balancing to
the heave of the ship. It took on the same evil look which he had seen
in his fall, while there was no mistaking the thought behind the gleam
in his eyes. The mate looked up,--into Owen's face,--and saw something
there which he must have understood; for he dropped his glance to the
compass, snarled out, "Keep her on the course," and stepped into the
lee alleyw