tricks Fate plays? You for instance--you, the captain of a private
yacht when you ought to be roving the high seas in a Flying Dutchman! You
probably were a few generations ago."

"Ah!" Larpent said, through a cloud of smoke. "Life isn't what it was."

"It's an infernal fraud, most of it," said Saltash. "Always promising and
seldom fulfilling!"

"No good expecting too much," said Larpent.

"True!" said Saltash. "On the other hand it isn't always wise to be too
easily satisfied." His look became suddenly speculative. "Have you ever
been in love, Larpent?"

The big man in the deck-chair made a sharp movement and spilt some
cigar-ash on his coat. He sat up deliberately and brushed it off. Saltash
watched him with mischievous eyes.

"Well?" he said.

Larpent leaned back again, puffing forth a thick cloud of smoke. "Once,"
he said briefly.

"Only once?" gibed Saltash. "Man alive! Why, I've had the disease scores
of times, and you are half a generation older than I am!"

"I know," Larpent's eyes dwelt unblinking upon the sparkling blue of the
water beyond the rail. "You've had it so often that you take it lightly."

Saltash laughed. "You apparently took it like the plague."

"I didn't die of it," said Larpent grimly.

"Perhaps the lady did!" suggested Saltash.

"No. She didn't die either." Larpent's eyes came slowly upwards to the
mocking eyes above them. "For all I know she may be living now," he said.

Saltash's grin became a grimace. "Oh, heavens, Larpent! And you've had
indigestion ever since? How long ago is it? Twenty years?"

"About that," said Larpent.

"Heavens!" said Saltash again. "I should like to see the woman who could
hold me after twenty years!"

"So should I," said Larpent dryly.

Saltash snapped his fingers. "She doesn't exist, my good fellow! But if
she did--by Jove, what a world it would be!"

Larpent grunted sardonically. "It wouldn't be large enough to hold you,
my lord."

Saltash stretched his arms wide. "Well, I'm going ashore to-night. Who
knows what the gods may send? Wish me luck!"

Larpent surveyed the restless figure with a sort of stony humour. "I wish
you a safe return," he said.

Saltash laughed and went away along the deck with a monkey-like spring
that was curiously characteristic of him. There was nothing of the
sailor's steady poise about him.

The little Italian town that clung to the slopes that rose so steeply
from the sea shone among its terraced gardens lik