quare window a cloud
passed from the face of the sun, and a great burst of sunshine entered
the cabin. She stood in the heart of it, and looked a goddess angered.
My lord, with his haggard face and burning eyes, slowly rose from his
seat, and they faced each other.

"You told them not who fired those guns, who sunk that pirate ship?"
she said. "Because he was your enemy, you held your tongue? Knight and
gentleman--my Lord Carnal--my Lord Coward!"

"Honor is an empty word to me," he answered. "For you I would dive into
the deepest hell,--if there be a deeper than that which burns me, day
in, day out.... Jocelyn, Jocelyn, Jocelyn!"

"You love me so?" she said. "Then do me pleasure. Because I ask it of
you, tell these men the truth." She came a step nearer, and held out her
clasped hands to him. "Tell them how it was, my lord, and I will strive
to hate you no longer. The harm that you have done me I will pray for
strength to forgive. Ah, my lord, let me not ask in vain! Will you that
I kneel to you?"

"I fix my own price," he said. "I will do what you ask, an you will let
me kiss your lips."

I sprang forward with an oath. Some one behind caught both my wrists in
an iron grasp and pulled me back. "Be not a fool!" growled Clayborne
in my ear. "The cord's loosening fast: if you interfere, it may tighten
with a jerk!" I freed my hands from his grasp. The Treasurer, sitting
next him, leaned across the table and motioned to the two seamen beside
the window. They left their station, and each seized me by an arm. "Be
guided, Captain Percy," said Master Sandys in a low voice. "We wish you
well. Let her win you through."

"First tell the truth, my lord," said the King's ward; "then come and
take the reward you ask."

"Jocelyn!" I cried. "I command you"--

She turned upon me a perfectly colorless face. "All my life after I will
be to you an obedient wife," she said. "This once I pray you to hold me
excused.... Speak, my lord."

There was the mirth of the lost in the laugh with which he turned to the
Governor. "That pretty little tale, sir, that I regaled you with, the
day you obligingly picked me up, was pure imagination; the wetting must
have disordered my reason. A potion sweeter than the honey of Hybla,
which I am about to drink, hath restored me beforehand. Gentlemen all,
there was mutiny aboard that ship which so providentially sank before
your very eyes. For why? The crew, who were pirates, and the captain,
who was