difficult, and there were few who had ever attempted it. For the
quicksand lay like a golden barrier between the outer beach and the
rocks that led thither.

It was an awesome spot. Many a splinter of wreckage had been tossed in
over the Spear Point as though flung in sport from a giant hand. And
when the water was high there came a hollow groaning from the inner
caves as though imprisoned spirits languished there.

But on that night of magic moonlight the only sound was the murmurous
splash of the rising waves as they met the first grim rocks of the
Point. Presently they would dash in thunder round the granite blade, and
the sleeping pool would be turned to a smother of foam.

On the edge of the pool a woman's figure clad in white stood balanced
with outstretched arms. So still was the water, so splendid the
moonlight, that the whole of her light form was mirrored there--a
perfect image of nymph-like grace. She sang a soft, low, trilling song
like the song of a blackbird awaking to the dawn.

"By Jupiter!" Knight murmured to himself. "If I could get her only
once--only once--as--she--is!"

The gleam of the hunter was in his look. He stood on the rocks some
yards away from her, gazing with eyes half-shut.

Suddenly she turned herself, and across the intervening space her voice
came to him, half-mocking, half-alluring, "Have you found your
inspiration yet?"

"Not yet," he said.

She raised her shoulders with a humorous gesture, "Hasn't the magic
begun to work?"

He came towards her, moving slowly and with caution. "Don't move!" he
said.

She waited for him on the edge of the pool. There was laughter in her
eyes, laughter and the sublime daring of innocence.

He reached her. They stood together on the same flat rock. He bent to
her, in his eyes the burning worship of beauty.

"Columbine!" he said. "Witch! Enchantress! Queen!"

The red blood raced into her face. Her eyes shone into his with a sudden
glory--the glory of the awaking soul. But the woman-instinct in her
checked the first quick impulse of surrender.

She made a little motion away from him. She laughed and veiled her eyes
from the fiery adoration that flamed upon her. "The magic is
working--evidently," she said. "What a good thing I brought you here!"

"Yes; it is a good thing," he said, and in his voice she heard the deep
note of a mastery that would not be denied. "Do you know what you have
done to me, you goddess? You have opened the eyes