It had a persisting fascination for her. At all times and in
nearly any position, she was somehow sensible of this vista; she
knew the lights almost immediately, and the common small craft
blinking about. To-night she had sat for a long time in nearly
utter silence here. There was a faint light on the open sea as
she got up to take her leave of us; what would it be she
wondered.

I replied that it was some small craft coming in.

"A fishing-boat?"

"Hardly that," I said, "from its lights and position it will be
some swifter power-boat and, I should say, not precisely certain
about the channel."

I have been drawn here into reminiscence that did not, at the
time, detain me in the hall. What my sister had discovered to
me, following Major Carrington's remark, left me distinctly
uneasy. It was very nearly two miles to the village, the road
was wholly forest and there would be no house on the way; for my
father, with an utter disregard for cost, had sought the
seclusion of a large acreage when he had built this absurdly
elaborate villa on Mount Desert Island.

Besides I was in no mood for sleep.

And, over all probability, there might be some not entirely
imaginary danger to Madame Barras. Not precisely the danger