Dick glanced round. Such refinement in regard to Grange's Andree rather amused him.
"It would be the first time Andree ever objected to publicity," he said. "And you won't get her ashore, Sergeant. She'll guess you've something up your sleeve. If she's there, I must go as soon as you come back, for fear she gets off in some way."
Baxter nodded, and in silence the two watched the 'Rocket' beat near and nearer until she came to anchor at last, riding heavily against the white foam along the harbour jaws.
Then Dick went to bed. But he did not sleep well. A dozen times he woke to hear the thunder of the wind and the gurgling snores of Baxter in the other bed across the room. Once Selkirk came out of the room opposite and tried the front door where it shuddered and groaned under the smite of the wind, and many times he expected the storm-window to be driven in. Mingled with his uneasy dreams were the faces he knew best. Jennifer, now laughing, now crying, now turning from him. Tempest, stern and aloof, unbending even in his grave self-renunciation. Andree, warm-lipped and glowing with her love, reaching eager hands to him. He woke once with the strange breathless sensation of a kiss stinging his mouth and the blood galloping along his veins. Then he lay still, staring on the darkness, and thinking his bitter thoughts. Jennifer had sent him away. Tempest would not accept his friendship any more. Those two whom he loved had chosen to be nothing to him. It was only Andree who held him before pride or conscience or anything else. Only Andree who was ready to fling all she had and was into his hands if he would have taken it. And he had been cruel to her, mercilessly cruel. But her love had been a greater thing than that.
And then with a sudden stab came the thought: Was her love for him still the chief thing in her life? A chill of dread ran along his body to think that perhaps it was not. In the cold dark of midnight, when a man's will lies weakest, Dick knew that it would be real pain to know that Andree had ceased to love him. He was heart-sick with desire for Jennifer and for Tempest, and they had denied
