catching
sight of the British shores. Eight years I had served on trading
vessels of various nationalities, and two years I had been a pirate,
when another change came.

I was sitting one evening alone, watching the setting sun, when I began
to think of my old life. I remembered all the legends of our house and
name as vividly as if I had been hearing them during the last ten
years. I thought of my father's warning that I should never leave the
Trewinion estate for six months at a time; if I did the race for three
generations would be cursed, while I should be haunted by dark spirits
on my deathbed. I remembered how he told me that if a Trewinion did
what was unlawful he brought down the vengeance of Heaven. And I had
been away ten years; I had become a pirate and was ever under a
sentence of death. I thought again of old Deborah Teague's warning, of
the cave full of evil women, and wondered. Then memories of Ruth came
back to me, and I saw her at Trewinion Manor as Wilfred's wife. I
wondered if I should ever see them all again--wondered, and then tried
to forget. I became oblivious of the beauty of the setting sun and of
my surroundings. The ship on which I sailed might be a ship of the
fancy for all I knew, for all I knew the crew might be spirits or men.
I was back again in my old home, and when at length I was aroused from
my reverie I could not get rid of the impression that I was wanted,
needed amongst the scenes of my childhood.

Presently the captain came near and laid his hand on my shoulder.

"Tretheway, I am getting tired of this roving life," he said.

"So am I," was my reply.

"I have been thinking," he went on, "if there may not be happiness and
peace for me even yet. I have been wondering if I may not return to
the land of my birth, and maybe find someone whom I can love and who
can love me."

I looked up into his face. There was a soft expression in his eyes,
and his lip was tremulous.

"Perhaps the way may open up soon," I said.

"It shall," he replied, sternly, and walked away.

Soon after this I turned in. I did not expect to sleep, but no sooner
had my head been placed on the pillow than I fell asleep and dreamed.

I saw the old home again as plainly as if I were there, and recognised
several of the servants. Katherine and Elizabeth I could not see, but
my mother was there, and Wilfred. In my dream I wandered from room to
room. I felt sure that Ruth was in the house, but