WALKING SHADOWS _SEA TALES AND OTHERS_ BY ALFRED NOYES NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS _Copyright, 1918, by_ Alfred Noyes _Copyright, 1918, by_ Frederick A. Stokes Company _All Rights Reserved_ CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE PRELUDE xi I. THE LIGHT-HOUSE 1 II. UNCLE HYACINTH 28 III. THE CREATIVE IMPULSE 82 IV. THE MAN FROM BUFFALO 117 V. THE _Lusitania_ WAITS 138 VI. THE LOG OF THE _Evening Star_ 151 VII. GOBLIN PEACHES 177 VIII. MAY MARGARET 205 IX. MAROONED 249 X. THE GARDEN ON THE CLIFF 281 XI. THE HAND OF THE MASTER 292 WALKING SHADOWS _Prelude_ Of those who fought and died Unreckoned, undescried, Breaking no hearts but two or three that loved them; Of multitudes that gave Their memories to the grave, And the unrevealing seas of night removed them; Of those unnumbered hosts Who smile at all our boasts And are not blazed on any scroll of glory; Mere out-posts in the night, Mere keepers of the light, Where history stops, let shadows weave a story. Shadows, but ah, they know That history's pomp and show Are shadows of a shadow, gilt and painted. They see the accepted lie In robes of state go by. They see the prophet stoned, the trickster sainted. And so my shadows turn To truths that they discern Beyond the ordered "facts" that fame would cherish. They walk awhile with dreams, They follow flying gleams And lonely lights at sea that pass and perish. Not tragic all indeed, Not all without remede Of clean-edged mirth. Our Rosalie of laughter, The bayonet of a jest, May pierce the devil's breast, And give us room and time for grief, here-after. So let them weep or smile Or kneel, or dance awhile, Fantastic shades, by wandering fires begotten; Remembrancers of themes That dawn may mock as dreams. Then let them sleep, at dawn, with the forgotten. WALKING SHADOWS I THE LIGHT-HOUSE The position of a light-house keeper, in a sea infested by submarines, is a peculiar one; but Peter Ramsay, keeper of the _Hatchets' Light_, had reasons for feeling that his lonely tower, six miles from the mainland, was the happiest habitation in the world.