heila Melrose face to face, and she drew back from him
in open disgust. He laughed at her maliciously, mockingly, as his royal
forefather might have laughed long ago, and passed on with the throng.

Hours later, when the _fete_ was over and the shore quite silent under
the stars, he came alone along the quay, moving with his own peculiar
arrogance of bearing, a cigarette between his lips, a deep gleam in his
eyes. It had been an amusing night after all.

Crossing the gangway to his yacht--_The Night Moth_--that rocked softly
on the glimmering ripples, he paused for a moment and turned his face as
if in farewell towards the little town that lay sleeping among its
cypress-trees. So standing, he heard again the tinkle of a lute from some
hidden garden of delight. It was as if the magic were still calling to
him, luring him, reaching out white arms to hold him. He made a brief bow
towards the sound.

"_Adieu_, most exquisite and most wicked!" he said. "I return--no more!"

The cigarette fell from his lips into the dark water and there came a
faint sound like the hiss of a serpent in the stillness. He laughed as he
heard it, and pursued his way aboard the yacht.

He found a young sailor, evidently posted to await his coming, snoring in
a corner, and shook him awake.

The man blundered up with a confused apology, and Saltash laughed at him
derisively.

"Wasting the magic hours in sleep, Parker? Well, I suppose dreams are
better than nothing. Were they--good dreams?"

"I don't know, my lord," said Parker, grinning foolishly.

Saltash clapped him on the shoulder and turned away. "Well, I'm ready for
the open sea now," he said. "We'll leave our dreams behind."

He was always on easy terms with his sailors who worshipped him to a man.

He whistled a careless air as he went below. The magic of Valrosa had
loosed its hold, and he was thinking of the wide ocean and buffeting
waves that awaited him. He turned on the lights of the saloon and stopped
there for another cigarette and a drink, first walking to and fro,
finally flinging himself on a crimson velvet settee and surrendering
himself luxuriously to a repose for which he had not felt the need until
that moment.

So lying, he heard the stir and tramp of feet above him, the voices of
men, the lifting of the gangway; and presently the yacht began to throb
as though suddenly endowed with life. He felt the heave of the sea as she
left her moorings, and the rush of water