was not sufficient that he had
returned to her side. She wanted his regard, his esteem, his affection,
his love. She wanted a child by him to bind them together. The
tenderness with which she was looking after Larssen's little son was an
outward expression of that inner hope. It was a prophecy of the future.
Olaf stood for what might be. If she should have a child of her own, she
felt convinced that Clifford would remain with her.

Those feelings were now the focus of Olive's thoughts. The sincerity of
her greeting to Clifford was not an assumed emotion. It was inner-real.
And yet it might not last for long. The effect of her drug-taking was to
make every momentary feeling seem an eternal, ineradicable mainspring of
action. Her many moods were each at the moment vitally important to her.
They obsessed her. The morphia had not only undermined her physical
health, but had made her mind the prey of every passing emotion.

For his part, Matheson was trying to weigh up the essential value of
this sudden change in his wife. He admitted the sincerity; he doubted
the permanency. He realised that she ardently desired a child of her
own--that was plain to read from her attitude towards Larssen's son. But
in the past she had always been impatient with children, and he
questioned whether her present feeling was more than transitory.

The morning of May 1st brought grey sky, grey waters, and a tumbling
sea. The yacht was beating north-east, close-hauled, into a stiff breeze
from eastwards. No land was in sight--only a few trawler sails and a
squat, ugly tramp steamer flinging a pennant of black smoke to
westwards. As the day wore on the wind rose steadily, and in the
afternoon the watch turned out to reef sails. Matheson was an excellent
sailor, and this tussle with the elements exhilarated him. Olive, too,
was quite at home on board a yacht, and the two marched the decks
together in keen enjoyment of the bite of the wind and the whip of the
salt spray.

By nightfall the wind had increased to a half-gale but the "Starlight"
rode through the sea in splendid defiance, sure of her staunchness and
steady in her purpose.

* * * * *

In this fight for the control of Britain's wheat-supply, Larssen had
played to the highest his powers of intellect, his foresight, and his
ruthless determination. He had forced the signature of Clifford Matheson
to the draft prospectus, thus sanctioning its issue. He had e