Page:Guy Boothby - The Beautiful White Devil.djvu/191

, a good ruler and a firm friend. Is there anything in any of those circumstances to make me think badly of you? No, no!"

"You are too generous to me, I fear. However, to-day you have seen me in the character of Retribution; you have seen that I can bite as well as bark. I should be sorry if I lost your good esteem. Now, with regard to Mr. Ebbington, I want to consult with you as to the course I should pursue with him."

"I hardly know," I answered. "I have been thinking it over this afternoon. The man is already nearly mad with fear; that flogging this morning was an awful lesson to him."

"I hope it was; but cannot you see the position I am placed in? After all that has passed between us, I cannot let him go out into the world again, and yet I do not want to keep him a perpetual prisoner at the settlement. A man of that kind might do serious mischief even there."

I did not know what to advise, so saying I would think about it, we dismissed the subject for the present. Alie was looking across the sea astern.

"We're in for a spell of bad weather, I fear," she said. "Do you see that bank of cloud away to the northeast? I hope it won't delay our getting back to the settlement. I have been watching it coming up, and I don't like the look of it at all."

We walked along together to the bridge, where she gave the officer of the watch some instructions. This done she turned to me and held out her hand.

"Good-night!" she said; "I am going below now to try and get some sleep in case we are to have trouble