“But you also will be sailing away,” she argued.

“I?  You forget that I have had no orders to return.  Sir John expects me to stay.  At least, so I’ve heard in a roundabout way.”

“You don’t mean to say, Chase, that you’ll stay on this demmed Island if the chance comes to get away,” demanded Lord Deppingham earnestly.  The two women were looking at him in amazement.

“Why not?  I’m an ally, not a deserter.”

“You are a madman!” cried Lady Agnes.  “Stay here?  They would kill you in a jiffy.  Absurd!”

“Not after they’ve had another good long look at my warships.  Lady Deppingham,” he replied, with a most reassuring smile.

“Good Lord, Chase, you’re not clinging to that corpse-candle straw, are you?” cried his lordship, beginning to pace the floor.  “Don’t be a fool!  We can’t leave you here to the mercy of these brutes.  What’s more, we won’t!”

“My dear fellow,” said Chase ruefully, “we are talking as though the ship had already dropped anchor out there.  The chances are that we will have ample time to discuss the ethics of my rather anomalous position before we say good-bye to each other.  I think I’ll take a stroll along the wall before turning in.”

He arose and leisurely started to go indoors.  The Princess called to him, and he paused.

“Wait,” she said, coming up to him.  They walked down the hallway together.  “I will run upstairs and unlock the treasure chest.  I do not trust even my maid.  You shall have two to-night—­no more.”

“You’ve really saved them for me?” he queried, a note of eagerness in his voice.  “All these days?”

“I have been your miser,” she said lightly, and then ran lightly up the stairs.

He looked after her until she disappeared at the top with a quick, shy glance over her shoulder.  Then he permitted his spirits to drop suddenly from the altitude to which he had driven them.  An expression of utter dejection came into his face; a haggard look replaced the buoyant smile.

“God, how I love her—­how I love her!” he groaned, half aloud.

She was coming down the stairs now, eager, flushed, more abashed than she would have had him know.  Without a word she placed the two cigarettes in his outstretched palm.  Her eyes were shining.

In silence he clasped her hand and led her unresisting through the window and out upon the broad gallery.  She was returning the fervid pressure of his fingers, warm and electric.  They crossed slowly to the rail.  Two chairs stood close together.  They sat down, side by side.  The power of speech seemed to have left them altogether.

He laid the two cigarettes on the broad stone rail.  She followed the movement with perturbed eyes, and then leaned forward and placed her elbows on the rail.  With her chin in her hands, she looked out over the sombre park, her heart beating violently.  After a long time she heard him saying hoarsely: