altogether from our sight!  I saw a waste of water spread around us emptily like a wide circle of crystal reflecting the sky, and a sense of desolation fell upon me in the mere fact that we were temporarily left alone.  We steamed on and on in the direction of the vanished ’Dream,’—­our movements suggesting those of some clumsy four-footed animal panting its way after a bird, but unable to come up with her.

“Wonderful!” said Mr. Harland, at last, drawing a long breath,—­“I would never have believed it possible!”

“Nor I!” agreed Captain Derrick—­“I certainly thought she would never have managed it in such a dead calm.  For though I have seen some of her mechanism I cannot entirely understand it.”

Dr. Brayle was silent.  It was evident that he was annoyed—­though why he should be so was not apparent.  I myself was full of secret anxiety—­for the ‘Dream’ yacht’s sudden and swift disappearance had filled me with a wretched sense of loneliness beyond all expression.  Suppose she should not return!  I had no clue to her whereabouts—­and with the loss of Santoris I knew I should lose all that was worth having in my life.  While these miserable thoughts were yet chasing each other through my brain I suddenly caught a far glimpse of white sails on the horizon.

“She’s coming back!” I cried, enraptured, and heedless of what I said—­“Oh, thank God!  She’s coming back!”

They all looked at me in amazement.

“Why, what’s the matter with you?” asked Mr. Harland, smiling.  “You surely didn’t think she was in any danger?”

My cheeks grew warm.

“I didn’t know—­I could not imagine—­” I faltered, and turning away I met Dr. Brayle’s eyes fixed upon me with a gleam of malice in them.

“I’m sure,” he said, suavely, “you are greatly interested in Mr. Santoris!  Perhaps you have met each other before?”

“Never!” I answered, hurriedly,—­and then checked myself, startled and confused.  He kept his narrow brown eyes heedfully upon me and smiled slightly.

“Really!  I should have thought otherwise!”

I did not trouble myself to reply.  The white sails of the ‘Dream’ were coming nearer and nearer over the smooth width of the sunlit water, and as she approached my heart grew warm with gratitude.  Life was again a thing of joy!—­the world was no longer empty!  That ship looked to me like a beautiful winged spirit coming towards me with radiant assurances of hope and consolation, and I lost all fear, all sadness, all foreboding, as she gradually swept up alongside in the easy triumph she had won.  Our crew assembled to welcome her, and cheered lustily.  Santoris, standing on her deck, lightly acknowledged the salutes which gave him the victory, and presently both our vessels were once more at their former places of anchorage.  When all the excitement was over, I went down to my cabin to rest for a while before dressing for the dinner on board the ‘Dream’ to which we were all invited,—­and while I lay on my sofa reading, Catherine Harland knocked at my door and asked to come in, I admitted her at once, and she flung herself into an arm-chair with a gesture of impatience.