“Yes, master.”

“No mistakes—­mind!”

“No, master.”

Renouard walked back towards the sea.  Luiz, following him, proposed to call out half a dozen boys and man the canoe.

“Imbecile!”

“Tse!  Tse!  Tse!”

“Don’t you understand that you haven’t seen me?”

“Yes, master.  But what a long swim.  Suppose you drown.”

“Then you can say of me and of Mr. Walter what you like.  The dead don’t mind.”

Renouard entered the sea and heard a faint “Tse!  Tse!  Tse!” of concern from the half-caste, who had already lost sight of the master’s dark head on the overshadowed water.

Renouard set his direction by a big star that, dipping on the horizon, seemed to look curiously into his face.  On this swim back he felt the mournful fatigue of all that length of the traversed road, which brought him no nearer to his desire.  It was as if his love had sapped the invisible supports of his strength.  There came a moment when it seemed to him that he must have swum beyond the confines of life.  He had a sensation of eternity close at hand, demanding no effort—­offering its peace.  It was easy to swim like this beyond the confines of life looking at a star.  But the thought:  “They will think I dared not face them and committed suicide,” caused a revolt of his mind which carried him on.  He returned on board, as he had left, unheard and unseen.  He lay in his hammock utterly exhausted and with a confused feeling that he had been beyond the confines of life, somewhere near a star, and that it was very quiet there.

CHAPTER IX

Sheltered by the squat headland from the first morning sparkle of the sea the little bay breathed a delicious freshness.  The party from the schooner landed at the bottom of the garden.  They exchanged insignificant words in studiously casual tones.  The professor’s sister put up a long-handled eye-glass as if to scan the novel surroundings, but in reality searching for poor Arthur anxiously.  Having never seen him otherwise than in his town clothes she had no idea what he would look like.  It had been left to the professor to help his ladies out of the boat because Renouard, as if intent on giving directions, had stepped forward at once to meet the half-caste Luiz hurrying down the path.  In the distance, in front of the dazzlingly sunlit bungalow, a row of dark-faced house-boys unequal in stature and varied in complexion preserved the immobility of a guard of honour.

Luiz had taken off his soft felt hat before coming within earshot.  Renouard bent his head to his rapid talk of domestic arrangements he meant to make for the visitors; another bed in the master’s room for the ladies and a cot for the gentleman to be hung in the room opposite where—­where Mr. Walter—­here he gave a scared look all round—­Mr. Walter—­had died.

“Very good,” assented Renouard in an even undertone.  “And remember what you have to say of him.”