"No—what?"

"No, I wouldn't consider you mad——"

"No—what?" he persisted.

And after a moment her pallor was tinted with a delicate rose.

"No—what?" he insisted again.

"No—Jim," she answered under breath.

"Then—close your ears, Jean, dear."

She closed them; his arm encircled her waist. She bore it nobly.

"You may fire when you are ready—James!" she said faintly.

A thunder-clap answered her; the Causeway seemed to spring up under their feet; the world reeled.