and we'll stoop from the saddle and gather up Love! And when the bubble
has vanished and Love is dead there's Honor left!" He leaned forward,
seeing and hearing where was neither sound nor sight. There was gayety
in his face. To the men who stared upon him it was a fearful thing that
he who had lost his battle should wear once more the look which they had
seen a thousand times. He raised his hand.

"Do you not hear the drums beat and the trumpets blow--far away, far
away? Let me whisper--there's one that comes home in triumph.... Ay,
your Grace, 'twas I that took Santo Domingo in Hispaniola, and on the
mainland the very rich cities of Puerto Cabello, Santa Marta, La Guayra,
Cartagena, Nombre de Dios and San Juan de Ulloa. Manoa I reserve,--'tis
a secret city, and all who know a secret must keep it, else.... Robin!
Robin, rid me of these babblers. She's coming!--all in white--like blown
spray--but she bears no roses. Lilies, lilies!--white samite like her
robe--but her eyes are turned away. Let her pass, ye fools! She's the
word of the night!" He staggered to his feet, swaying forward, clutching
at the empty air as at a man's throat, and again his laugh rang through
the cabin. "So you twisted it from me, Spanish dog!--so I raved out my
heart as to a woman? Then, Don Sathanas, we'll go home together and all
the soldiery of hell shall not unlock our embrace!" He grappled with an
invisible foe--bent him backward farther and farther over the brink of
the world--went down with him into unplumbed darkness....

They judged not the Captain of the _Cygnet_ for a craven and a traitor,
for, day after day and day after day, he lay in the Admiral's cabin, so
ill a man that the coasts of Death seemed nearer than those of England,
and man's condemnation an idle thing, seeing that so soon he must face
another Justiciar. So near at times to that ultimate shore did he drift
that those who watched him saw the shadow on his face. When the shadow