It was pitch dark and the thunder of the rain on deck was ceasing.
He lay awake for an hour and then he slept again, only to repeat the dream.
A little after dawn he awoke with the bells sounding so loudly in his ears that he could have sworn they were anchored in the bay and that the cathedral was greeting them with a peal, but he knew by the movement of the ship that this was not so.
He put his hand into the upper bunk, and taking the treasure bundle from beneath the mattress, put it in his pocket. Then he came on deck.
The sun had already shewed himself just above the horizon, but the sky was clouded to southward and rain squalls dimmed the horizon.
S. S. E. and perhaps not more than ten miles away lay Martinique with Pelée wrapped in ragged and dirty-coloured clouds. He looked like a king whose robes had gone to tatters till the sun rising more fully, touched him with gold, and white, and pearl against the deepening blue of the sky.
Gaspard gazed awhile at this majestic sight. They had not opened the Bay of St. Pierre yet, but the Anne Martin was already altering her course and in half an hour or less they would have the bay and city full in view.
Dominica to eastward lay unclouded, haze-blue upon the morning sea, beautiful as a dream.
Gaspard, turning from the weather bulwarks on which he had been leaning, began to cut some tobacco in the palm of his hand and to fill his pipe. Whilst he was engaged in this business, he heard a hurried footstep and Skinner came running aft.
The mate darted down the companion-way to the cabin and almost immediately reappeared with a telescope; after him came Captain Stock, a pair of marine glasses in his hand.