"It seems impossible, I admit. I wouldn't have believed it myself if anybody had told me."

"What is it? What are you talking about?" demanded Suzanne, her curiosity now aroused, in spite of her ill-humour.

"It is unaccountable," mused the head gunner, to all appearance lost in a sort of admiring wonder. "It is enough to make one wonder whether one is awake or only dreaming."

"But what is it you see?" cried the ship owner, no less impatiently than the housekeeper. "What are you talking about? Where must we look?"

"You see that cliff there to the left, don't you?"

"To the left?" asked the ship owner, ingenuously, "to the left of what?"

"To the left of the other, of course."

"What other?" demanded Suzanne, in her turn.

"What other? Why, don't you see that big white cliff that looks like a dome?"

"Yes," answered the ship owner.

"Well, what of it?" snapped Suzanne.

"Look, high up."

"High up, Segoffin?"

"Yes, on the side."

"On the side?"

"Yes, don't you see that bluish light playing on it?"

"Bluish light?" repeated the ship owner, squinting up his eyes and arching his hand over them to form a sort of shade.

"Yes, high up, near the top! The deuce take me if it isn't turning red now! Look, will you! Isn't it amazing? But come, M. Verduron, come, let's get a closer look at it," added Segoffin, seizing the ship owner by the arm and trying to drag him away.

"One moment," exclaimed M. Verduron, releasing himself from the head gunner's grasp, "to take a closer look at anything one must first have seen it at a distance, and the devil take me if I can see anything at all. And you, madame?"

"I don't, I am sure, monsieur."

Segoffin would perhaps have attempted to prolong the illusion by endowing the light with all the other colours of the rainbow, but the approach of another and even greater danger extinguished his inventive genius.

He heard Sabine's voice only a few feet from him, exclaiming:

"What are you all looking at, my dear Suzanne?"

"Mlle. Sabine!" Segoffin mentally exclaimed. "All is lost! Poor child!

Such a revelation will kill her, I fear."

CHAPTER XVI.

SEGOFFIN'S RUSE.

On seeing Sabine, M. Floridor Verduron began his reverential evolutions all over again, and the girl returned his bows blushingly, for she had not expected to meet a stranger in the garden.

Segoffin, terrified at the thought that Cloarek's secret might be revealed at any moment, resolved to get the visitor away at any cost; so, interrupting him in the midst of his genuflections, he said:

"And now, M. Verduron, if you will come with me I will take you to monsieur at once."

"But my father has gone out, Segoffin," said Sabine.

"Never mind, mademoiselle, I know where to find him."

"But it would be much better for monsieur to wait for my father here, I think," insisted the girl. "He said he would soon be back, and if you go out in search of him you run a great risk of missing him, Segoffin, and of giving this gentleman a long walk for nothing, perhaps."

"No, no, mademoiselle, it is such a delightful day monsieur will enjoy a little walk, and I know a very pleasant road your father is sure to return by."

"But he might not return that way, Segoffin," interposed Suzanne, favourably disposed toward the visitor, by reason of his extreme politeness, and consequently anxious to enjoy his society as long as possible.

"But I tell you that--"

"My good friend," interrupted M. Verduron, "I must admit that I am too gallant, or rather not sufficiently unselfish, to debar myself of the pleasure of waiting here for the return of--"

"Very well, very well," interposed Segoffin, quickly, "we won't say any more about it. I thought mine would be the better plan; but it doesn't matter in the least, in fact, now I think of it, there is something particular that I want to speak to you about. I only ask two minutes of your time--"

"Two minutes, fair ladies!" exclaimed the visitor, laughing, "as if two minutes spent out of such delightful society was not two centuries of time."

"Ah, monsieur, you are really too kind," exclaimed Suzanne, bridling coquettishly in her delight at this new compliment.

"You will have to make up your mind to it, Segoffin," said Sabine, who was beginning to find M. Verduron very amusing.

"But I really must speak to you in private, monsieur, and at once,"

exclaimed the head gunner, greatly alarmed now.

"Come, come, my worthy friend, don't speak in such thunder tones, you will frighten these fair ladies," said M. Verduron, too anxious to exercise his fascinations upon the ladies to comply with Segoffin's request. "I will promise you a private audience after they have deprived us of the light of their presence, but not until then."

"But at least listen to what I have to say," insisted poor Segoffin, desperate now, and trying to get near enough to the visitor to whisper a few words in his ear.

But that gentleman hastily drew back with a loud laugh.

"No whispering in the presence of ladies, man! What do you take me for, a savage, a cannibal? This indiscreet friend of mine seems to be resolved to ruin me in your estimation, my dear ladies."

"Oh, you have no idea how obstinate M. Segoffin is," remarked Suzanne.

"When he once gets anything into his head there is no moving him."