"I return--no more!"
The cigarette fell from his lips into the dark water and there came a
faint sound like the hiss of a serpent in the stillness. He laughed as he
heard it, and pursued his way aboard the yacht.
He found a young sailor, evidently posted to await his coming, snoring in
a corner, and shook him awake.
The man blundered up with a confused apology, and Saltash laughed at him
derisively.
"Wasting the magic hours in sleep, Parker? Well, I suppose dreams are
better than nothing. Were they--good dreams?"
"I don't know, my lord," said Parker, grinning foolishly.
Saltash clapped him on the shoulder and turned away. "Well, I'm ready for
the open sea now," he said. "We'll leave our dreams behind."
He was always on easy terms with his sailors who worshipped him to a man.
He whistled a careless air as he went below. The magic of Valrosa had
loosed its hold, and he was thinking of the wide ocean and buffeting
waves that awaited him. He turned on the lights of the saloon and stopped
there for another cigarette and a drink, first walking to and fro,
finally flinging himself on a crimson velvet settee and surrendering
himself luxuriously to a repose for which he had not felt the need until
that moment.
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