TO
J.A.J. AND W.A.J.
[[I]] [[II]] [[III]] [[IV]] [[V]] [[VI]]
[[VII]] [[VIII]] [[IX]] [[X]] [[XI]] [[XII]]

Illustrations

"'OH, I ENVIED HER!' SHE CRIED"[Frontispiece]
"SIR JOHN THRUST HIMSELF BETWEEN THE TWO"Facing p. [16]
"IT WAS BALDRY'S SHIP, THE LITTLE STAR"[52]
"'DO YOU PURPOSE, THEN, THAT HE SHALL DIE?' DEMANDED BALDRY"[138]
"'I BEG THE SHORTEST SHRIFT THAT YOU MAY GIVE'"[174]
"'DAMARIS, THEY CALL HIM TRAITOR'" "[190]
'"AH, LOOK NOT SO UPON ME!'" "[244]
"THE FRIAR PRESENTED A BLANK COUNTENANCE TO SIR MORTIMER'S QUERIES"[260]
"'LAD, LAD,' HE WHISPERED, 'WHERE IS THY MASTER?'"[284]

Sir Mortimer

I

ut if we return not from our adventure," ended Sir Mortimer, "if the sea claims us, and upon his sandy floor, amid his Armida gardens, the silver-singing mermaiden marvel at that wreckage which was once a tall ship and at those bones which once were animate,--if strange islands know our resting-place, sunk for evermore in huge and most unkindly forests,--if, being but pawns in a mighty game, we are lost or changed, happy, however, in that the white hand of our Queen hath touched us, giving thereby consecration to our else unworthiness,--if we find no gold, nor take one ship of Spain, nor any city treasure-stored,--if we suffer a myriad sort of sorrows and at the last we perish miserably--"

He paused, being upon his feet, a man of about thirty years, richly dressed, and out of reason good to look at. In his hand was a great wine-cup, and he held it high. "I drink to those who follow after!" he cried. "I drink to those who fail--pebbles cast into water whose ring still wideneth, reacheth God knows what unguessable shore where loss may yet be counted gain! I drink to Fortune her minions, to Francis Drake and John Hawkins and Martin Frobisher; to all adventurers and their deeds in the far-off seas! I drink to merry England and to the day when every sea shall bring her tribute!--to England, like Aphrodite, new-risen from the main! Drink with me!"