ut if it fails us there'll be tide enough to get us round the
Island and into a hidden anchorage in Hibert River. Then--a cargo of
Acadian beef and barley for Louisburg! And then--money! And then--and
then--you!"

He looked at her with pleading and longing in his eyes, but with a
doggedness about his mouth which told of much pain endured and a
determination which might bide its time, indeed, but would not be
balked. The look of the mouth she was conscious of, deep down in her
heart, and she in reality rested upon it; but it was the look in his
eyes which she answered. She answered it lightly. A mocking smile
played about the corners of her lips and her eyes sparkled upon him
whimsically. The look both repulsed and invited him; and he hung for
some moments, as it were, trembling midway between the promise and the
denial.

"Don't be too sure of--me!" she said at last. And his face fell--not
so much at the words themselves as at their discouraging accent.

"But," he protested, "it is all planned, all done, just for you, Barbe.
There is nothing in it at all, except you. It is all you. That is
understood between us from the first, and all the time."

Still her mouth mocked him; and still her eyes gleamed upon him with
their enigmatic light.

"You will have your beautiful little ship," she said slowly. "You will
have wonderful adventures--and little time to think of me at all. You
will make a wonderful deal of money. You will make your name famous
and hated among these English. I am expecting you to do great things.
But as for me--I am not won yet, Jean."

His eyes glowed upon her, and the lines of his face set themselves with
a sudden masterfulness. He gave a little, soft laugh.

"You are mine! You will be my wife before I make my second voyage."

"If you believe that, you ought to be a very happy man," she retorted,
and her smile softened almost imperceptibly as she said it. "You don't
look quite as happy as you ought to, Jean!"

"_Don't_ make me wait for my second voyage! Let me take you away from
this unhappy country. Come with me--come with me now!"

He spoke swiftly, his voice thick with the sudden outburst of passion
long held in check; and he strode forward to catch her in his arms.

Instantaneous as a darting bird, or a flash of light on a wave, she was
up from her resting-place and away behind the pile of grass and ferns.

"Stay there!" she commanded, "or I'll go home at once!" And J