Ernest stepped back and motioned him to arise, still keeping guard. The Count called aloud to his men, one of whom still lay beneath Mr. Windsor’s thrall, and the other sitting up, all blood-stained, swayed backward and forward, as only half recovered from a swoon. ‘Let your men go, John,’ said Mr. Neuchamp. ‘The treaty of Morahmee is arranged between the high contracting powers. They will not renew the war,’ he continued, as the Count and Jack’s last antagonist between them raised the fainting man and led him down to the gig, which in the briefest period was seen heading for the yacht as fast as oars could drive her. ‘My word, sir,’ said Mr. Windsor, ‘it looked very crooked when I come on the ground. I saw that frog-eating mounseer potting you with his squirt like a tree’d ’possum—both the young ladies, too, being run off to sea with, clean and clear against their wills. I don’t hold with that sea business at all—it’s dangerous—let alone with a boss like the Count, who’s wanted in his own country, like as not. However, we euchred ’em this time, whoever plays next game.’ ‘You behaved like a trump, Jack. You were my genuine “right bower,”’ said Mr. Neuchamp with unwonted humour and heartiness. ‘Without you we should never have won the odd trick. I knew that you were just behind me at Woolloomooloo; but I was terribly afraid that you could not be up in time.’ ‘If one John Windsor’s anyways handy when you’re in trouble, sir, you’ll mostly find him there or thereabouts, as long as he’s alive, that is. I can’t say afterwards. What do you think, sir, about what comes after all this rough-and-tumble that we coves call life?’ demanded Jack with sudden interest. ‘I don’t think too much about it, which is perhaps the best wisdom. But of this we may be sure, John, that no man will fare worse in the other world for doing his duty as a man and a Christian in this.’ When the house was reached, it appeared that Miss Folleton had been handed over to the good offices of her friend’s maid, and was recovering her nervous system in the seclusion of a guest-chamber. Antonia, having smoothed her hair, and rearranged herself generally, awaited the victor in the verandah. She stood gazing seawards with a haughty air of defiance, which still savoured of the fray. The light of battle had not faded from her eye; a bright flush embellished with rare and wondrous beauty the untinted marble of her delicate features. As she stood, unconsciously statuesque, and gazed half unheeding in her rapt regard of the flying bark, the long-loved, fast-thronging, magical glories of the evening ocean-pageant, ... the day was dying: Sudden the sun shone forth; its beams were lying Like boiling gold on ocean, strange to see; And on the shattered vapours, which defying The power of light in vain, tossed restlessly In the red heaven like wrecks in a tempestuous sea.