A BUNCH OF HEATHER


It was a glorious morning, and so warm that I went up on deck
without any hat or cloak, glad to have the sunlight playing on my
hair and the soft breeze blowing on my face. The scene was perfectly
enchanting; the mountains were bathed in a delicate rose-purple glow
reflected from the past pomp of the sun's rising,--the water was
still as an inland lake, and every mast and spar of the 'Diana' was
reflected in it as in a mirror. A flock of sea-gulls floated round
our vessel, like fairy boats--some of them rising every now and then
with eager cries to wing their graceful flight high through the calm
air, and alight again with a flash of silver pinions on the
translucent blue. While I stood gazing in absorbed delight at the
beauty which everywhere surrounded me, Captain Derrick called to me
from his little bridge, where he stood with folded arms, looking
down.

"Good morning! What do you think of the mystery now?"

"Mystery?" And then his meaning flashed upon me. "Oh, the yacht that
anchored near us last night! Where is she?"

"Just so!" And the captain's look expressed volumes--"Where is she?"

Oddly enough, I had not thought of the stranger vessel till this
moment, though the music sounding from her deck had been the last
thing which had haunted my ears before I had slept--and dreamed! And
now--she was gone! There was not a sign of her anywhere.