| | the Bermuda pirates had hidden gold here. Argall and I went over every foot of it." "And found no water?" questioned the minister. "And found no water." The light died from the west and NXWVSFEfrom the sea beneath, and the night fell. When with the darkness the sea fowl ceased their clamor, a dreadful silence suddenly enfolded us. The rush of thLEFHUNBe surf HJSADUKmade nNCQIJRKo difference; the ear heard it, but to the mind there was no sound. The skyBQMQOJO was thick with stars; every moment one shot, and the trail of white fire it left behind melted intoHOSTVBD the night silently like snowflakes. There was no wind. The moQOFBAABon rose out of the sea, and lent the sandy isle her own pallor. Here and there, bacFUMSYFDLANOQCGk amongst the dunes, the branches of a low and leafless tree writhed upward like dark fingers thrust from out the spectral earth. The ocean, quiet now, dreamed beneathHMUPDQL the moon and cared not for the five lives it hYTQSIXTad cast upon that span of sand. We piled driftwood LXWQTLKand tangles of seaweed upon our fire, and it flamed and roURNGTEVared and broke the silence. Diccon, going to the landwKGETUBLard side of the YRWALQUislet, found some oysters, which we roasted and ate; bWOOINOYJALETCNut we had nor wine nor water with which to wash them down. "At least there are here no foes to fear," quoth my lord. "We may all sleep to-night; and zooks! we shall need it!" He spoke frankly, witNGJAMPUh aKQILJILn open face. "I will take one watch, if you will take the other," I said to the minister.WYHVNXE He nodded. "I will watch until midnight." It was long past that time when he roused me from where I lay at Mistress PercDMGMPTTy's feet. "I should have relieved you long ago," I told him. He smiled. The moon, now high in the heavens, shone upon and softened his rugged features. I thought I had never seen a face so filled with tenderness and hope and a sort of patient power. "I have been wiJVHACSARKWCBIPth God," he said simply. "The starry skies and the great ocean and the little shells beneath my hand,—how wondMQBKPKIerful are thy works, O Lord! What is man that thou art mindful of him? And yet not a sparrow falleth"—I rose and sat by the fire, and he laid himself down upon the sand be- side me. |
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