The swarm descended into the boats, and all pushed off from the doomed
ship save a single craft, less crowded than the others, which waited,
its occupants gesticulating angry dismay, for the one man who had not
left the _Star_. He stood erect upon her bowsprit, a dark figure
outlined against the livid sky.

[Illustration: "IT WAS BALDRY'S SHIP, THE LITTLE _STAR_"]

The watchers upon the _Cygnet_, from Captain to least powder-boy, drew
quick breath.

"Ah, sirs, he loved the _Star_ like a woman!" ejaculated Thynne the
master, and, "He swore terribly, but he was a mighty man!" testified the
chief gunner. Robin-a-dale swung himself to and fro in an ecstasy of
terror. "He rides--he rides so high!" he shrilled. "Higher than the
gallows-tree! And he stands so quiet while he rides!"

Upon the poop young Sedley, standing beside his Captain, veiled his eyes
with his hand; then, ashamed of his weakness, gazed steadfastly at the
lifted figure. Arden, drumming with his fingers upon the rail, looked
sidewise at Sir Mortimer Ferne.

"It seems that your quarrel will have to wait some other meeting-place
than England," he said. "Perhaps the laws of that _terra incognita_ to
which he goes forbid the duello."

"He will not leave our company yet awhile," answered Ferne, with
calmness. "As I thought--."

The dark figure had dropped from the bowsprit of the _Star_ into the