plan!"

At that moment Captain Derrick looked in at the saloon door to
remind us that the boat was still waiting to take our visitor back
to his own yacht. He rose at once, with a briefly courteous apology
for having stayed so long, and we all vent with him to see him off.
It was arranged that we were to join him on board his vessel next
day, and either take a sail with him along the island coast or else
do the excursion on foot to Loch Coruisk, which was a point not to
be missed. As we walked all together along the moonlit deck a chance
moment placed him by my side while the others were moving on ahead.
I felt rather than saw his eyes upon me, and looked up swiftly in
obedience to his compelling glance. There was a light of eloquent
meaning in the expression of his face, but he spoke in perfectly
conventional tones:--

"I am glad to have met you at last,"--he said, quietly--"I have
known you by name--and in the spirit--a long time."

I did not answer. My heart was beating rapidly with an excitation of
nameless joy and fear commingled.

"To-morrow"--he went on--"we shall be able to talk together, I
hope,--I feel that there are many things in which we are mutually
interested."

Still I could not speak.

"Sometimes it happens"--he continued, in a voice that trembled a
little--"that two people who are not immediately conscious of having