"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.