Captain de Croix is full of wit and good-humor this morning, and has already cheered me greatly with reminiscences of happier days." "Indeed ?" I said, looking at the fellow curiously.

"He has quickly forgotten the baleful portent of last night.

I thought the daylight would yield him new heart." "And why not?
'Twas but a cloud, as all of us know now,--though I confess it terrified me greatly at the time.

You yourself seem not even yet to have wholly shaken off its terror." "'T is not the supernatural that so troubles me," I rejoined.

"As you may perceive yonder, Captain Wells rides forth with blackened face to what he deems to be certain death.