CHAPTER I.
THE DREAMER.
So many of my dreams have come true, that I sometimes incline to believe that dreams are in reality the only truths.

I fancy this dream, at any rate, will be fulfilled.
* * * * * A hard gale rushed over a torn sea, and the drift was swept so that the moon was obscured with every fresh gust.

High overhead a clear, steely sky was flecked here and there with fleecy white, and, ever and again, the moon slipped her mantle of cloud from her rounded shoulder, and looked around her with large, calm glances.

But there was an evil-looking sky away to the eastward, and the black wreaths 'of cloud crept steadily upward, obscuring little by little the fair, glittering sky.

The swift waves gathered volume, and soon their hollows were like great Panpipes through which the gale blew with many doleful sounds.
Everything to be seen on sea or sky promised a wild night, and the powerful schooner yacht which was charging along over the running seas was already reefed down closely.