But this remark was promptly hushed by Bella, who would not allow her lover to even finish it, and, as his watch commenced at six o'clock, he now went below to get an hour or so's rest before that time arrived, while she still sat on beneath the awning, thinking dreamily of him alone and of their future--if any lay before them, which now seemed doubtful, or, at least, very uncertain. Then, suddenly, as thus she mused, there happened a thing which startled and amazed her so that she sprang out of her Singapore chair and gazed aft, away down towards the south. A thing which even she, a landswoman, a girl originally unacquainted with anything connected with seafaring matters, had, by now, come to recognise and understand as vital to all on board that ship. She had felt the back of the straw hat she wore lifted by a slight warm ripple of air, while, at the same moment, some of the pages of a book she had left lying on the table were suddenly turned over swiftly and with a loud rustle. 'It is the breeze,' she muttered, 'the breeze! The wind at last!' The others on deck had perceived it as quickly as she. At once, those who were about had sprung into action and thrown off the listlessness which had pervaded all in the ship since they had been becalmed. In an instant all was bustle and confusion; the four remaining men who could see rushing about eagerly. The master came out from where he had been talking to some of the sufferers, while Charke, running along the waist, called out: 'Miss Waldron! Miss Waldron! Where is the lieutenant? We want his services now, at once. Perhaps he, too, can do as much as any of his own men could if we look alive.' 'I will fetch him directly,' Bella cried, full of excitement, and, swiftly, she ran down the companion to the saloon on her way to hammer on Gilbert's cabin-door and awaken him. But, as she reached the place she stopped, petrified almost and filled with a vague alarm at she scarcely knew what, while, at the same time, she smothered a shriek which rose to her lips, and exclaimed in its place: 'Bertie! Bertie! What is the matter?' For she saw him standing by the saloon-table gazing at her, smiling even as he heard her loved voice, yet holding on to the edge with one hand while, with the other, he felt, as it seemed, cautiously before him. And again she cried: 'Bertie, what is it? What does it mean?' Then she heard his voice saying: 'It means, darling, that I too am struck down. That I too am blind.' CHAPTER XV A LIGHT FROM THE PAST