"Well!" he said with a sudden intake of breath, and paused, once more overwhelmed by the change in his affairs. "I don't know what to say, Esther." He put his hand on her shoulder and she twisted away a little. "I feel as if I'd been having a long dream, and just woke up."
"Go!" she said huskily. "Good-bye. Good fortune. There is a carriage coming. My 'usban'."
"Anyhow ... Esther. I did what I promised her to do ... not my fault." He got down into the boat "Where's your hand? Good-bye ... good-bye.... Push off, son, push off.... After all I done...."
They saw, from a little way off, the white form of Esther spring forward and vanish behind the buildings as a feeble yellow flicker from a carriage lamp crawled slowly along the road and stopped. They heard laughter and confused arguments.
"Drunk!" whispered Mr. Cassar without either envy or malice.
"Full to the guards," assented his commander. "Hark!"
Someone was singing, a full youthful voice of brazen vibrant quality, a voice with an ineluctable and derisive challenge to confident hearts. Though he did not understand the words, Mr. Spokesly was aware of this challenge as he listened:
"_Auf, deutches Volk, du stark Geschlecht Es schlug die grosse Stunde, Steh auf und sei nicht länger Knecht Mit Kraft und mut steh für dein Recht Im heilgen Volke bunde!_"
There was a pause, with protests and guttural amusement which were suddenly engulfed in a clarion shout:
"Go ahead," said Mr. Spokesly, looking back as he sat in the stern, "and make as little noise as you can."
Out of the darkness came the faint clarion call he had already heard that night:
and the sound, with its echoes from the mountain, seemed to stream out of that open window he had left. Suddenly, with a resolute movement, he turned and bent to the business of steering. The boat was moving through the water.
"Let her out," he muttered, looking at his watch. "We've got four hours to daylight."
And the dawn found him there, still crouching motionless at the tiller, while behind them the mountains of Lesbos rose enormous, the sun rising over Asia. And ahead lay the dark sparkle of an empty sea.
"All I can say is," said the elderly lieutenant, and he applied himself assiduously to the trimming of his nails, "you were in luck all through."