d or get angry tonight! Come, Eric! we played and
fought together. I won fairly. I played fairly all the game of our
wooing! You know that as well as I do; and now when I am going away, I
shall look to my old and true comrade to help me when I am gone!'

'I'll help you none,' said Eric, 'so help me God!'

'It was God helped me,' said Abel simply.

'Then let Him go on helping you,' said Eric angrily. 'The Devil is
good enough for me!' and without another word he rushed down the steep
path and disappeared behind the rocks.

When he had gone Abel hoped for some tender passage with Sarah, but
the first remark she made chilled him.

'How lonely it all seems without Eric!' and this note sounded till he
had left her at home--and after.

Early on the next morning Abel heard a noise at his door, and on going
out saw Eric walking rapidly away: a small canvas bag full of gold and
silver lay on the threshold; on a small slip of paper pinned to it was
written:

'Take the money and go. I stay. God for you! The Devil for me!
Remember the 11th of April.--ERIC SANSON.' That afternoon Abel went
off to Bristol, and a week later sailed on the _Star of the Sea_ bound
for Pahang. His money--including that which had been Eric's--was on
board in the shape of a venture of cheap toys. He had been advised by
a shrewd old mariner of Bristol whom he knew, and who knew the ways of
the Chersonese, who predicted that every penny invested would be
returned with a shilling to boot.

As the year wore on Sarah became more and more disturbed in her mind.
Eric was always at hand to make love to her in his own persistent,
masterful manner, and to this she did not object. Only one letter came
from Abel, to say that his venture had proved successful, and that he
had sent some two hundred pounds to the bank at Bristol, and was
trading with fifty pounds still remaining in goods for China, whither
the _Star of the Sea_ was bound and whence she would return to
Bristol. He suggested that Eric's share of the venture should be
returned to him with his share of the profits. This proposition was
treated with anger by Eric, and as simply childish by Sarah's mother.

More than six months had since then elapsed, but no other letter had
come, and Eric's hopes which had been dashed down by the letter from
Pahang, began to rise again. He perpetually assailed Sarah with an
'if!' If Abel did not return, would she then marry him? If the 11th
April went by without Abe