Nelson's hand dropped. He stopped short, and his smile died. In a flash the man of action, brisk and curt, had taken the place of the comrade chivalrously admitting a mistake. "Then I must trouble you to fetch the key of the powder-magazine, and to follow me." He clapped on his cocked hat. The great man turned swiftly. "One moment, my lord," and he was gone. III There was a rush up the companion-ladder, and the noise of running feet on the deck overhead. "Great God!" groaned Nelson, ghastly, and flung open the port. A dark mass with straggling legs shot past. There was the plump of a body striking the sea, and crash of showering waters. "_Man overboard!_" roared a voice from the deck. "_Back tops'ls. Here, sir!_" A rope coiled out and splashed the water. Nelson's head was through the port. The man came up beneath him, and turned to face the ship and his Admiral. "O, Dark! Dark! Dark!" cried Nelson, and there was agony in his voice. Dark looked up, the hair plastered about his forehead. "Nelson," he shouted. "I ask your pardon." "It's yours, Dark," choked the other. "But O! I thought--I thought you loved me!--every man of you." "Often and often I could have killed you," gasped the other, bobbing to the seas. "Rather that than this!" sobbed the great seaman. "Murder's the braver deed." "I was mad!" groaned the other. "She was in my blood. She was my soul. She _is_ my soul--the Christ be kind to her! O, if any man in the world can understand, that man should be Lord Nelson." "No! no! no!" raved Nelson, tossing with his head, stamping with his feet, thumping the port with his fists. "Myself! my wife! my friend!--but _not_ my country! _Not_ that, Dark! _never_ that!" "_Lively there!_" roared the voice from the deck. "_Lower away_." There was the splash of a boat. Dark flung aside the rope to which he had been holding. There was silence in the cabin. Through it came a despairing voice from the water. "I can't sink!--My God, my God!--I can't sink!" Nelson swept the pistol off the table and thrust through the port. "Catch!" he gasped, and threw. The man rose to it like a leaping fish, flung a high hand, and caught it. Then he sank back. "Thank you, my lord," he cried, terrible joy in his voice. "May God forgive me as you have done." Kit had a vision of a black mouth open, a thrusting barrel ringed with teeth, two screwed eyes, and then-- "Don't look, boy!" screamed Nelson, and plucked him away. The slamming port drowned another sound. CHAPTER LXXVII THE _MEDUSA_ GOES ABOUT I Nelson rocked on the table. His hands were to his eyes, pressing, pressing, as though he would blind himself. "And this is what comes of it!" he moaned. Then he rose, and crossed the cabin, walking uncertainly as a little child. Kit thought he would have fallen, and stepped forward. The great captain waved him back with his stump. Then he passed out alone. A minute later the boy heard a door open and shut, and peeped out.