nd he kept to his
post, looking for the fleet of the foe. Evening after evening was this
other fire lighted and then put out at once; and a great longing came to
him to leave this guarding of the fire, and go to her--"For half a day,"
he said--"just for half a day!" But in that half day the fleet might
pass, and then it would be said that Tinoir had betrayed his country. At
last sleep left him, and he fought a demon night and day; and always he
remembered Dalice's arm about his neck, and her kisses that last night
they were together. Twice he started away from his post to go to her,
but before he had gone a hundred paces he came back.

At last one afternoon he saw ships, not far off, rounding the great cape
in the gulf, and after a time, at sunset, he knew by their shape it was
the fleet of the foe; and so he lighted his great fires, and they were
answered leagues away towards the city by another beacon.

Two hours after sunset of this day the fire in front of Tinoir's home
was lighted, and was not put out, and Tinoir sat and watched it till
it died away. So he lay in the light of his own great war-fire till
morning, for he could not travel at night, and then, his duty over, he
went back to his home. He found Dalice lying beside the ashes of her
fire, past hearing all he said in her ear, unheeding the kiss he set
upon her lips.

Two nights afterwards, coming back from laying her beside her children,
he saw a great light in the sky towards the city, as of a huge fire.
When the courier came to him bearing the Governor's message and the
praise of the people, and told of the enemy's fleet destroyed by the
fire-rafts, he stared at the man, then turned his head to a place where
a pine cross showed against the green grass, and said:

"Dalice--my wife--is dead."

"You have saved your country, Tinoir," answered the courier kindly.

"I have lost Dalice!" he said, and fondled the rosary Dalice used to
carry when she lived; and he would speak to the man no more.

BY THAT PLACE CALLED PERADVENTURE

By that place called Peradventure in the Voshti Hills dwelt Golgothar
the strong man, who, it was said, could break an iron pot with a blow,
or pull a tall sapling from the ground.

"If I had a hundred men so strong," said Golgothar, "I would go and
conquer Nooni, the city of our foes."

Because he had not the hundred men he did not go; and Nooni still sent
insults to the country of Golgothar, and none could travel safe b