Sir Mortimer

nd the Mere Honour, the Cygnet, the Marigold, and the Star made ready to meet what fury the Lord should be pleased to loose up

eir enemy, but to say each to the other: "Here am I, my sister! Go not too far, come not too near!" Their voices were as whispers to the shoutin

and just before dawn the clouds broke, showing a waning moon. Below it suddenly sprang out two lights, one abov

heavy sea, her masts gone, her boats swept away, her poop low in the water, her beak-head high, sinking by the stern. Her lights yet burned, ghastly in the dawning; her people, a black swarm

crowded than the others, which waited, its occupants gesticulating angry dismay, for the one man who

Y'S SHIP, THE

t, from Captain to least po

a mighty man!" testified the chief gunner. Robin-a-dale swung himself to and fro in an ecstasy of terror. "H

hand; then, ashamed of his weakness, gazed steadfastly at the lifted figure. Ard

meeting-place than England," he said. "Perhaps the laws o

yet awhile," answered Ferne,

the deserted ship suddenly streamed out a red banner of the dawn; stark and black against the color, lonely in the path tha

h Arden, somewhat grimly, for he was no lover of Bald

d been the act of a madman. And if to live is a thin

might see the Mere Honour and the Marigold," he said, impatiently. "What is lost is lost, and Captain Baldry as well as

"She's going down, down, down! Oh, the white figurehead looks no more into

g, but the spirit of man was awed within him. A ship was lost, and the sea was lonely beneath the crimson dawn. Where were the Mere Honour and the Marigold, and was

e musicians of the Cygnet began to play, as at the setting of the watch, a psalm of thanksgiving. Sailors and volunteers, there had bee

rer was the latest to set foot upon the Cygnet's deck. H

id, gravely and courteously. "We thank God that no brave m

yet had qualities which had borne him upward and onward from mean beginnings to where on yesterday he had stood, owner and Captain of the Star, leader of picked men, sea-dog and adventurer as famed for daredevil courage and boundless endurance as for his braggadocio vein and sullen temper. N

opinion. But that he would follow after courtesy was as certain as that Baldry would pursu

Captain Baldry to then remove into the Mere Honour, I make no doubt that the Admiral will welcome so notable a recruit. In

eeches," he said. "You have me in irons. Pray you,

little throng of gentlemen adventurers sailing with Sir Mortimer Ferne.

of gall in love

uch, but the g

n himself one of Bal

s gentleman in the cabin next mine own, seeing that he hath all

of the debt he owed the Cygnet. At last he went below--to refuse the bread and meat, but to drink deep of the aqua vita which Sedley stiffly offered; then to lock himself in

that floating castle destined to be dashed like a battering-ram against the power of Spain. The Captain of them all, with his gentlemen and officers about him, paused a moment before moving to his accustomed place, and looked upon his ship from stem to stern, from the thronged decks to the topmost pennant flaunting the sunshine. He found it good, and the salt of life was strong in his nostrils. Inwardly he prayed for the safety of the Mere Honour, and the Marigold, but that picture of the sinking Star he dismissed as far as might be from his mind. She had been but a small ship--notorious indeed for fights against great odds, for sheer bravado and hairbreadth escapes, but still a small ship, and not to be compared with the Cygnet. No life had been forfeited, and Captain Robert Baldry must even digest as best he might his private loss and discomfiture. If, as he walked to his place of hon

h his lieutenants Wynch and Paget. In his state-cabin, when he had given his Captains welcome, the Admiral sat at table with his wine before him and heard how had fared the Cygnet and the Marigold, then listened to Baldry's curt recital of the Star's ill destinies. The story ended, he gave his meed of grave sympathy to the man wh

Admiral, what reason for changing it? In fine, he should not budge, unless, indeed, Si

to eat his heart out with envy and despite? Perhaps not; and yet, who knew? The Cygnet was there, visible through the port windows, lifting against serenest skies her proud bulk, her castellated poop and forecastle, her tall masts and streaming pennants. The Star was down below, a hundred leagues from any lover, and the sea was deep upon her, and her guns were silent and her decks untrodden.... He was wearied of Baldry's company,

the coldest, yet Baldry, not being sensitive, and having gained his point,

nd I,--though whether God or the devil hath joined us!...

ken much sack, began to loudly vaunt the deeds of the drowned Star, magnifying her into a being sentient an

Your luck--my luck--the luck of this our enterprise! It is a

Baldry, playing with his knife. "

red Arden, whereat his neighbor laughed aloud, and B

. "I have known churls in honorable houses and true knights in the common camp. And I subm

n, on that occasion of which I was speaking, the devil's own luck being with me, I

against an adversary's shield, a lurid fancy dully illuminating the subject he had in hand. The wild story that he was telling caught the attention of the more thoughtless sort at table; they leaned forward, encouraging him from flight to flight, laughing at each sally of boatswain's wit, ejaculating admiration when the Star and her Captain fairly left the realm of

he mainmast

ast with

tely as a Spaniard. And then, chancing to glance towards the head of the board, he met the eyes of the man who sat there, his Captain now, whom he must follow! What might he read in their depths? Half-scornful amusement, perhaps, and the contempt of the man who has done what man may do for the yoke-fellow who habitually made claim to supernatural prowess; in addition to the scholar's condemnation of blatant ignorance, the

s Baldry, that was master of the Speedwell that went down at Fay

wered Fer

would have sworn a many had passed before your eyes.

nt round the board a laugh for Baldry's boasting. That adventurer started to hi

"An I should die before ou

and left

ied away, "I had rather gather snow for the

wn back, turned from staring after the retreating figure. "I

n's deeds do haunt him, rising like shadows across his path, I believe full well--but for me the master of the Speedwell mak

eat upon the bench beneath, and leaning on his arm, l

ells, let mournin

ove i

dead,

e of deep

ssion. The listener's spirit left its chafing, left pride an

s, weep; do you

ove is

bed peacoc

ng sheet

alse-seemi

executo

the sun sank; on came the invader night. Fer

, and Shame the Nessus-robe, and Death, which, when all's done, may have no answer to the riddle!--Where is the fixed star, and

ger the blithest soul alive, when all is well you do ask yourself too many questions!

"Come, I'll dice with thee for fifty ducats and a

f heaven, hung the Great Ship, blazed the Southern Cross. Every hour saw the flight of meteors, and their trains, golden argosies of the sky, faded slowly from the dark-blue depths. When the moon arose she was ringed with colors, but the men who gazed upon her said not, "Every hue of the rainbow is there." They said, "See the red gold, the pearls and the emeralds!" The night died suddenly and the day was upon them, an aureate god, lavish of splendor. They hailed him with music; as they pulled and hauled, the seamen sang. Other winds than those of heaven drove them on. High purpose, lo

niverse crowded too swiftly; the heady wine made now gods, now fools of men. The white light was not for the heirs of that age, nor yet the golden mean. Wonders happened, that they knew, and so like children they looked for strange chances. There was no miracle at which their faith would balk, no illusion whose cobweb tissue they cared to tear away. Give but a grain where

in a hidden city, from end to end a three days' march, where gold-dust thickened the air, and an Inca drank with his nobles in a garden whose plants waved not in the wind, whose flowers drooped not, whose birds never stirre

they, puppets of their age, hold an even balance, know the mirage, know the truth? Inextricably mingled were the threads of their own being, and none could tell warp from woof, or guess the pattern that was

positive, stood out for unbroken forests and surf upon a lonely reef. While they contended, the island vanished. Then they knew that they had seen St. Brandon's Isle, and in his prayer at the setting of the watch the chaplain made mention of the matter. On a night when all the sea was phosphorescent, Thynne the master saw in the wake of the Cygnet a horned spirit, very black and ugly, leaping from one fiery ripple to another,

"Perchance 'tis so. They say they are fair women.... Th

was the echo of some heavenly strain. There goeth a great star! They s

d away and the shearer returned to her place, then in the deep darkness, where even the stars shine not, the shorn thread may feel God's touch, may know it hath yet its use

ch to Mortimer Ferne, laid impulsively his hand upon his Captain's hand. "On the night you give your sword

to Death.... There again, do you not hear the singing? It is the wind, I think, and

ht but warlike matters. With the morning the three ships counted to the general gain the downright sinking of a small fleet from Hispaniola, and the ta

s. Full--sailed upon the quiet sea they held their course, while the men upon them, eager-eyed and keen, watched for land and for the galleons of Spain. Content with the taking of the Star, calamity now kept

ple Tun, they came to the rocky island of Tobago; watered there; then, driven by the

ered the harbor of New Cadiz, and began to bombard that much-decayed town of the pearl-fishers. The Cygnet kept on to the slight settlement of La Rancheria, and met, emerging in hot haste from a little bay of blue crystal, the galle