Romance Island

reen, like the islands of its sister latitudes before which the passing ships of all the world are wont to cast anchor.

es, and afar inland rose the mountain upon whose summit the light had been descried. There the glass revealed white towers and columns rising from a mass of brilliant tropical green, and now smitten by the late sun; but save these towers and columns not a sign of life or habitation was discernible. No smoke arose, no wharf or dock broke the se

George and Amory had counted upon an adventure calling for all diplomacy, but neither had expected the delight of hazard that this strange, fairy-l

st then, Jarvo?" observed St. George; "but how

ponded, "but no, ad?n,

possible?" St

but I'm no mountain goat. See the little Swiss kid

uired St. George, "or is th

himself in uncont

under de sea, like Jules Werne," he

islanders alone. That way we must take. It is marked by a White Blade blazoned on the rock over the

shook h

n fer a matther av four hundhred years, more or less, an' I niver as much as seed hide nor hair av the place before this prisint. There ain't map or chart that iver dhrawed breath that shows u

e tried now to soothe a man in the embrace of a sea-serpent i

s a great silence in their windless shelter broken only by the boom and charge of the breakers and the gulls and choughs circling overhead, winging and dipping along the water and returning with discordant cries to t

ere on deck. Rollo, whose soul did not disdain to be valet

until sunrise to go

George. "Heaven on ea

they were eager to be about, though Rollo ventured to St. Georg

stay aboard?" St. Ge

e, "one should meet danger with a light hear

d to me, an' fwhat if she lays here tin year', and you somewheres fillin' the eyes av the aygles with your brains blow

St. George grimly, "you coul

il staring out at the island, suddenly p

y, with an octopus clinging to each arm and a dolphin on my back, and you don't even ask how I stood th

mean?" aske

an shook his

arbour? Lord, you can't tell what you're about walking into. You don't even know the specific gravity of the isla

"Still, I fancy there is good sense on the page, for once. We don't know anything about a

at Amory with

dare say I ought to stay aboard and le

have expected a bird to frown as Little Cawthorne. It was

ou two rest your chins on the top of that ledge of rock up there, and look over. And about to

't I goin' to get to climb in de pantry wind

aid Little Cawthorne; "we'd get our language twisted

wthorne always sacrifice himself, which is merely good breeding, but he made opportunities to do so, which is both well-bred and virtuous. When Rollo came up with the oil-skins they told hi

person to change his mind,

as much at her ease as if the phantom island before her were in every school-boy

, "we might have gone down through the sluice and

his pince-nez at the same time, "Chillingwo

vely, from the deck of the yacht, "you didn't wear your rubb

o found footing in an instant, and St. George and Amory pressed closely behind him, Rollo and little Akko silently bringing up the rear and carrying the oil-skins. Slowly and cautiously as they made their way it was b

eemed possible, the ascent, perilous as it was, proved to be no such superhuman feat as from below it had appeared. But it seemed interminable. Even when the sea lay far ben

d the soil which was like beds of old lava covered by thin layers of limestone, was everywhere pierced by sharp shoulders of stone lying in savage disarray. Gradually rock-slides and rock-edges yielded a less insecure footing on the upper reaches, but the chasms widened and water dripping from lateral crevasses made the vague trail slippery and the occasional earth sodden and treacherous. For a quarter of a mile their way lay over a kind of porous gravel into which their feet sank, and beyond at the summit of a ridge Jarvo halted and threw back to them a summary warning to prepare for "a long leap." A sharp angle of rock, jutting out, had been split down the middle by

inety pounds," said St. George;

stood

other end of the nail, as usual? Suppose the specific gravity-suppose there is something-suppose it

unding up the stony way as eas

dinary man would weigh only twenty-six or seven pou

the idea and were hurrying on when Akko

man feels like a mountain.

Akko said no more, and St. George and Amory, with a disquietin

ng up a steep trail that was not difficult to keep in spite of the fast falling night. And at length Jarvo, roun

he said

in what was spread before him lay the satisfaction of Burne-Jones' wistful definition of a picture: "... a beautiful, romantic dream of something that never was, never will be, in a light better than any light that ever shone, in a land no one can define or remember, only desire..." yet it was to St. George as if he had rea

littering in the abundant light shed upon its white wall and dome and pinnacle, stood Med, the King's City-but its light was not the light of the day, for that was gone; nor of the moon, not risen; and no false lights vexed the dark. Yet he was looking into a cup of light, as clear as the light in a gazing-cr

ver known. For by some way of miracle, the mystery of the island was suddenly to him the very mystery of his love, and the two so filled his heart that he could not have told of which he was thinking. That which had lain, shadowy and delicious, in his soul these many days-not so very many, either, if one counts the suns-was become not only a thing of his soul but a thing of the outside world, almost of t

everything but confess in words that something he

refully ligh

if the whole place would explode if I thre

ge did n

s lead up," he was saying to him

Everywhere, everywhere was a chorus of slight voices, from bark and air and secret moss, singing no forced notes of monotone, but piping a true song of the gladness of earth, plaintive, sweet, indescribably harmonious. It came to St. George that this was the way the woods at night would always sound if, someho

t was literally "a light better than any light that ever shone," and it wrapped them round first like a veil and then like a mantle. Dimly, as if released from the censer-smoke of a magician's lamp, boughs and glades, lines and curves were set free of the dark; and St. George and Amory could

ember, or, save fleetingly in dreams to see once more, since the picture-book is never, never chanced upon again. Sometimes he had dreamed of a great sunny plain, with armies marching; sometimes he had awakened at hearing the chimes, and fancied sleepily that it was infinite music; sometimes, in the country in the early morning, he h

terrace where white steps mounted to a wide

e had at that moment stirred it up in a sauce

opled. Far as the eye could see, broad streets extended, lined with structures rivaling in splendour and beauty those unforgotten "topless towers." Temples, palaces, and public buildings rose, storey upon storey, built of hewn stones of great size; an

mmonplace needs, so essentially the scene of every-day activity and purpose, that dozens of towns of petty European principalities seem far less actual and practicable homes of men. Busy citizens hurrying, the

enture in St. George had suddenly

of O

in the power of a pretender who might have at command such undreamed resources was more than cool reas

ere the walls are highest-that is the palac

palace?" St. Geo

o the solitary summit l

one ascend?" c

up by six imperial carriers, trained in the service from birt

irships?" ventured Amor

not quit

ng to the imperial household and are

rchy is a bit of a trust, anyhow. Of course, it'

is necessary that we make our peace with all speed, if that may be. The very walls are the ears

George, "that we too would bet

arvo simply, "but nothing

s as was the etiquette of the court of the moon, clearly diplomacy was the better part of valour. It wa

said briefly, "we wi

rvo, bowing low, "may the

-morrow," suggested St. George, "so that i

the possible, ad?n,"

o's white teeth and the

sible white steps and such a curious place for these two to find themselves, alone, with a

id Amory, emptying his pipe

rward his lean,

a 'ansom, sir?" he inqui

ge hardl

heet of white paper," he said whimsically

building below, a train of sober-liveried attendants, all at first glance resembling Jarvo and Ak

le," said Am

e, in spite of its health and even wealth of contour, was ridiculously grave, as if the papier-maché man

eting of his Highness, Prince Tabnit, and his welcome to Yaque. I am Cassyrus, an officer

aid St. George, and added ea

ree days ago,"

he returned?" a

ad, and his very anx

ed, "is still most lamentably abse

then, who could not possibly have waited

ng still more as if he were having his portrait painted, "wil

ke her place as the people of Yaque had petitioned. But what was the meaning of that news of the prince's treachery which Jarvo and Akko had come bearing

now in a temper of unsurprise, in that mental atmosphere-properly the normal-which regards all miracle as natural law. He even omitted to note what was of passing strangeness: that neither the retinue of the minister nor the others upon the streets cast more than casual gl

all-and everywhere, above, below and far, that delicate, labyrinth light, diffused from no visible source. It was as if some strange compound had changed the character of the dark itself, transmuting it to a subtle essence more exquisite than light, inhabiting it w

in awe, "what a picture for th

Question which profoundly underlies all things. It was like a triumphant burst of music which y

gold. These halted, saluted, wheeled, and between their shining ranks St. George and Amory footed quietly on, followed by Rollo carrying the yel

reality. And when they had mounted the steps of the mighty entrance, and the sound of unrecognized music reached him-a very myth of mu

he is here