"
They gathered closer around the yawning grave, and some began
to lift the corpse. As for me, I withdrew as noiselessly as an Indian
from my lair of grass, and, hidden by the heaped-up sand, made off
across the point and down the beach to where a light curl of smoke
showed that some one was mending the fire I had neglected. It was
Sparrow, who alternately threw on driftwood and seaweed and
spoke to madam, who sat at his feet in the blended warmth of fire
and sunshine. Diccon was roasting the remainder of the oysters he
had gathered the night before, and my lord stood and stared with a
frowning face at the nine-mile distant mainland. All turned their
eyes upon me as I came up to the fire.
"A little longer, Captain Percy, and we would have had out a
search warrant," began the minister cheerfully. "Have you been
building a bridge?"
"If I build one," I said, "it will be a perilous one enough. Have you
looked seaward?"
"We waked but a minute agone," he answered. As he spoke, he
straightened his great form and lifted his face from the fire to the
blue sea. Diccon, still on his knees at his task, looked too; and my
lord, turning from his contemplation of the distant kingdom of
Accomac; and Mistress Percy, one hand shading her eyes, the
slender fingers of the other still immeshed in her long dark hair
which she had been braiding.
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