THE WITCH OF ATLAS 
 
 A BA LL ONING S TOR Y
 
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 PBIMTBD BY eiLBBBT AND BIVIN6TON, LIMITBD, 
 
 si. JOHN'S HOUSE, CT.BBKENWEI.L KOAD.
 
 THE 
 
 WITCH OF ATLAS 
 
 A BALLOONING STORY 
 
 H. PARK BOWPEN 
 
 ' There she would build herself a windless haven 
 Out of the clouds whose moving turrets make 
 The bastions of the storm, when through the sky 
 The spirits of the tempest thundered by." 
 
 The Witch of Afl<i*. SHKLLKY. 
 
 A 
 
 LONDON 
 SAMPSON LOW, MAHSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON 
 
 Limited 
 
 ^J. Junstan's ^ouse 
 FETTKK LANE, FLEET STREET, E.G. 
 
 1889 
 [All riyhts reserved"]
 
 THE WITCH OF ATLAS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 " Or, when the weary moon was in the wane, 
 
 Or in the noon of interlunar night, 
 The lady-witch in visions could not chain 
 
 Her spirit ; but sailed forth under the light 
 Of shooting stars." 
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 COUNTLESS red lights dotted, in far-ranging 
 parallel lines, the night-darkened face of 
 the deep. They were the beacons of a 
 fishing-fleet, and corresponded in number 
 to that of the boats. 
 
 The scenes which they, illumined bore 
 a close similarity to each other ; tarry 
 decks encumbered with tackle, about 
 which busily moved the uniformly clad 
 
 i ' < 
 
 2212585
 
 2 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 figures of the fishermen, generally eight 
 in number. Aboard one vessel, however, 
 the light fell upon a ninth, a tall, erect 
 figure, conspicuous in tweed suit and "deer- 
 stalker." 
 
 Weary with poring over musty tomes 
 of law and logic, this individual had 
 turned his back on London to enjoy for 
 a few days the invigorating breezes of 
 Yarmouth ; and, determined to imbibe a 
 copious draught of ozone, he had gone out 
 with the fishing-fleet in the company of 
 an old acquaintance, Captain Potter. 
 
 His back towards the lamp, this lands- 
 man stood idly watching the heaving 
 phosphorescent waters, listening at the 
 same time to the communications of a burly 
 fisherman respecting the winter trawling 
 season, and occasionally making a few 
 comments, or putting a question, in a 
 pleasant tenor voice of refined accent. 
 
 Presently the fisherman's duties called 
 Lim abaft. For a few minutes the other
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 3 
 
 continued his contemplation of the gleam- 
 ing surges ; then, turning on his heel, he 
 moved towards the hatchway. The light 
 now falling full on his face, revealed dark 
 and noble features of expression not easily 
 interpreted. The quick, incisive glance 
 of his dark eyes indicated that astuteness 
 was prominent among his mental qualities. 
 With due circumspection, he let himself 
 down the rickety ladder into the dark 
 little cabin, the close atmosphere of which 
 was strongly tainted with fish and tobacco. 
 Settling himself as comfortably as possible 
 on a locker at right angles with the grate, 
 towards whose brightly burning fire he 
 turned his feet he closed his eyes, and 
 fell into a sound sleep. Before long he- 
 was suddenly aroused by a tremendous 
 noise which grew louder and louder. 
 Springing to his feet, he mounted the 
 ladder on to the deck. The cause of 
 alarm was manifest. A dark, towering 
 object, bearing one misty light, was 
 B 2
 
 4 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 swooping down on the fleet of vessels, 
 that, bereft of sail and mast, were power- 
 less to escape the impending danger. 
 
 " Can you make out what it is ? " he 
 asked of the skipper, who was hastily 
 binding a quantity of tarred hemps on the 
 end of a pole. 
 
 " Swamped if I can ! " was the short 
 reply. 
 
 " 'Pears to me," said a gruff voice near, 
 ** like a great hulk toppin' along on her 
 keelson." 
 
 " Then Old Nick must be a-steerin' her!" 
 said the skipper, as setting the hemp afire, he 
 raised the flaming mass aloft a warning 
 already adopted by numbers of the fleet. 
 Far and wide spread the light of the 
 conflagration, disclosing the appalling 
 object to be but a collapsing balloon, 
 whose tiny car just skimmed the face of 
 the deep a disclosure that caused the 
 terrific uproar to give place to a dead 
 silence.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 5 
 
 As the stiff breeze brought it nearer 
 the fleet, the eager watchers perceived 
 that its sole occupant was a woman, and 
 were moved, one and all, to sympathetic 
 excitement. They intently eyed the 
 solitary figure, on which a lamp, hanging 
 
 from the hoop of the car, shed its hazy 
 
 rays. 
 
 " Starboard yer helm, marm, starboard 
 yer helm ! " shouted one of the men. 
 
 " I can do nothing to save myself ! Do 
 some of you try to catch the ropes, as I 
 drift by," was the appeal carried to them 
 by the wind. 
 
 "Aye, aye, ma'am!" was the simul- 
 taneous shout of a dozen voices. 
 
 On, on swept the looming aerostat. 
 
 Suddenly it rose some feet into the air, 
 and the excited smacksmen detected a 
 dark line stretching between the bottom 
 of the car and the heaving sea. 
 
 "Ah, the guide-rope," muttered the 
 landsman, hastily pulling off his coat.
 
 6 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 As he hurriedly unfastened his boots, he 
 kept a vigilant' watch on the advancing 
 balloon with its solitary lamp and 
 passenger. Were both light and life to 
 be extinguished in the dark world of 
 waters ? 
 
 The landsman being on the outermost 
 smack but one in the second line from 
 the rear, he was in a position to measure 
 the chances of the balloon's capture, 
 which appeared to him very slight; for 
 he saw that its course being in a tangen- 
 tial line, it would come into proximity with 
 one vessel only. His peering eyes could 
 now discern the extreme pallor of the set 
 face which seemed illumined halo-like by 
 the radiance of the hanging lamp. 
 
 The balloon approached the critical 
 point approached and missed it just 
 beyond the reach of the many hands out- 
 stretched towards the loose lengths of 
 rope streaming from the network that 
 enclosed its upper part. A line was
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 7 
 
 flung towards the aeronaut, but it missed 
 her grasp; the vain attempt to seize it 
 all but precipitating her into the sea. 
 Recovering her balance, she caught up a 
 knife, and began desperately severing the 
 ropes connecting the car to the hoop. 
 The gleaming steel had divided three and 
 was at work on a fourth, when a loud 
 splash apprised her of the fact that some 
 one had plunged into the sea. 
 
 Through silvery-white tracks and 
 inky-black spaces, that alternately 
 revealed and hid him, the swimmer plied 
 his course towards the aerial waif. The 
 next minute a tremendous swelling cheer 
 broke the hush of suspense. The giant 
 fugitive was captured. But it was evi- 
 dently as much as its captor could do to 
 impede its course. 
 
 " Hold on t'her tail, my baw, I'll tackle 
 her. in a brace o' shakes ! " bawled a strap- 
 ping fellow on board the smack nearest the 
 point of contest. Foreseeing the emer-
 
 8 Tke Witch of Atlas. 
 
 gency, he had been divesting himself 
 of his outer garments and cumbrous 
 boots ; and now, having secured around 
 his waist one end of a line, he leapt 
 overboard. His mates ran out the rope 
 according to his headway. A few coils 
 alone remained with them when the seaman 
 reached the struggling landsman. Soon 
 over the water came the shouts, " All right, 
 haul away ! " And haul the sailors did 
 full lustily. The two in the water also 
 towing by means of the guide-rope. 
 
 More and more towering grew the dark 
 form of the balloon in the eyes of the 
 hauling smacksmen. " Belay there ! " said 
 the skipper, when it was drawn within a 
 score of yards of the boat, the car being 
 about on a level with her deck. Then 
 stepping forward to the low bulwark, he 
 touched his hat preliminary to addressing 
 the balloonist, but instead of so doing, he 
 hesitated awkwardly, as though dubious 
 how to accost such a rara avis. Finally,
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 9 
 
 raising his hand to his bearded mouth, he 
 abruptly launched his voice. 
 
 " Lookee here, marm. I'm fur thinkin' 
 this 'ere boat will be capsizin' bloomin' 
 sharp, if her be rigged with such quar sail 
 as that ! " 
 
 "No fear of that. The balloon is too 
 far collapsed to work any mischief ! " came 
 in impatient tones from one of the swim- 
 mers. His peremptory voice was imme- 
 diately followed by a woman's, clear as a 
 bell. *' If you will extinguish that torch, 
 there will be no danger whatever." 
 
 At once grasping the overlooked fact, 
 that an explosion was a more impending 
 danger than a capsize, the skipper 
 hastily seized the pole, and thrust its still 
 flaming extremity overboard ; a loud hiss, 
 and it was quenched. Then, turning to 
 the men, he bade them haul in. As they 
 obeyed him, their eyes curiously scruti- 
 nized the occupant of the wicker-work car. 
 
 The next minute the overhanging and
 
 io The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 fast collapsing balloon, that had now taken 
 somewhat the form of a parachute, grazed 
 the boat's timbers. While some secured the 
 car and awkwardly assisted the fair aero- 
 naut into the boat, others gave a helping 
 hand to her rescuers. One of the rescuers, 
 picking up his garments from where he had 
 hastily thrown them, disappeared below, 
 while the other aided the men, who, in 
 compliance with the lady's request, were 
 overhauling the balloon into a position 
 that would allow of the removal of the 
 indiarubber band from the valve, and the 
 consequent free escape of the remaining 
 gas. The band having been removed, the 
 lady fell back a few paces from the eager 
 knot of smacksmen. 
 
 Thrusting back his dripping hair, her 
 deliverer, the landsman, moved to join her, 
 where she stood by the extemporized lamp- 
 post. 
 
 The lady's small, finely-cut features, 
 instinct with subdued excitement, deeply
 
 The Witch of Atlas. n 
 
 impressed him. As he met her eyes, 
 deep 
 
 ' As are 
 
 Two openings of unfathomable night 
 Seen through a tempest's cloven roof," 
 
 they seemed to flash light on his memory, 
 revealing a reflection of the past. Once, 
 when wearied with a day's exploration of 
 Mount Atlas' heights and recesses, he 
 had laid him down to rest, as dewy purple 
 nightfall approached, on a fragrant grassy 
 bed, canopied by butting rock. Again, in 
 imagination, he drowsily watched a pearly 
 crescent rise above the silvered outline of 
 the opposite mountain, darkened with many 
 a dusky cypress. It was just, seemingly, 
 poised on its nether tip, when a black- 
 robed figure passed, with swift and noise- 
 less footstep, the observer's shadowed 
 resting-nook. The level moonbeams 
 showed the watcher a face of gleaming 
 fairness, lit by forward-gazing eyes of 
 sombre splendour. The watcher's spell-
 
 12 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 bound eyes followed the fair figure, until 
 a jutting rock hid her from his view. 
 Springing to his feet he hastened to 
 the rocky angle and looked eagerly down 
 a shadowy winding vale, tracked with 
 moonlight, but saw no dark-robed figure. 
 Thus baffled he returned to his lowly 
 couch, and remembered how 
 
 " A lady-witch there lived on Atlas' mountain, 
 Within a cavern by a secret fountain," 
 
 and deciding, to his fancy's satisfaction, 
 that he had seen no other than that lady- 
 witch, he fell asleep, to dream she 
 re-appeared on the opposite mountain- 
 ridge, and, with sudden prank, set the 
 crescent spinning on its point. 
 
 Since that night, seven times sevenfold, 
 
 " The mother of the months had bent 
 Her bow beside the folding-star ; " 
 
 and now behold, the wizard lady stood 
 before him, encompassing his whole being 
 with 
 
 "The magic circle of her voice and eyes."
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 13 
 
 " How can I ever thank you ! But for 
 your prompt kindness and exertion, I 
 should certainly have lost my balloon, 
 and probably my life." 
 
 With an effort he recalled himself 
 from his abstraction to attend to her clear 
 flowing voice, and, in a vague perplexity, 
 
 N 
 
 taking her extended hand, he expressed 
 his happiness in having been of service to 
 her. 
 
 " I am afraid I and my poor Serena 
 are greatly in the way," she said, glancing 
 towards the amorphous balloon, now 
 emitting its gas over the boat's side. " I 
 shall be glad when I can pack her into 
 the car ; I would I could make myself of 
 smaller compass." 
 
 " Dwindle away into one of your boots 
 comparatively speaking," he said, with 
 cursory pleasantry, adding seriously, " I 
 greatly regret that we cannot offer you 
 better accommodation. There is some sort 
 of a cabin below but, I forget I have
 
 H The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 changed boats ! Though, doubtless, there 
 is just such another little cabin and bright 
 fire aboard this one. Yes, I see there is," 
 he added, glancing down the cramped 
 hatchway near which they stood. 
 
 " I am very glad of that, for your sake," 
 she said. "You must feel wretched in 
 those wet clothes." 
 
 " It may be there is some spare gear on 
 board that I could don whilst my own is 
 drying," he said. 
 
 " Do go then at once and inquire," she 
 urged. 
 
 Gratified at her concern on his behalf, 
 he made for the skipper. In a minute he 
 returned to her, having ascertained that 
 there were a few things stowed away in a 
 locker below, belonging to that worthy, 
 who was now gone to rummage for them. 
 He stubbornly delayed following him, 
 until he had placed a fish-crate in the least 
 exposed quarter of the deck, and covered 
 it with a rug he fetched from the car.
 
 The Witch of A tlas. \ 5 
 
 Having cast a glance aft, and satisfied 
 herself that the men were adhering to 
 their promise, that a lighted pipe should 
 not come near the balloon, the smack's 
 fair visitant fell to watching the pearly 
 bloom that came and went on the herring- 
 teeming water. 
 
 Presently, on looking round she found 
 her late companion had rejoined her, now 
 attired in rough blue guernsey, wide 
 canvas trousers, and big sou' -wester, 
 whose aft-brim made an incongruous back- 
 ground to his aristocratic features. 
 
 " Mr. Peggotty, at your service," he 
 said, touching the curtailed f orebrim of his 
 sou'-wester, " alias," he continued, bowing, 
 " Derrick O'Rorke." 
 
 " A name I shall ever remember with 
 gratitude," she said earnestly, then added 
 simply, " Mine is Gytha Keppel." 
 
 " I am afraid, Miss Keppel, you must 
 find this rolling very disagreeable, after 
 the smooth sailing of your aerial vessel."
 
 1 6 The Witch of A lias. 
 
 " Nevertheless, I am thankful to have 
 made the exchange. I suppose these are 
 fishing-boats ? " 
 
 " Yes, the herring-fleet ; this is a Yar- 
 mouth boat." 
 
 " What a number of lights there 
 are!" she said, casting a glance along 
 the far-stretching lines of beacons. 
 " When, on descending below the clouds, 
 I first saw them, I took them for street- 
 lamps." 
 
 " I can fancy they had that effect," 
 he said, his glance following hers. " It 
 must have shocked you when you dis- 
 covered your mistake ! " he added, turning 
 his eyes on her pale face. 
 
 " It did indeed, Mr. O'Rorke; but, seeing 
 so many boats, I took heart again. What 
 an uproar the men did make ! " 
 
 " Yes, but considering the thousands of 
 strong lungs that raised it, it is not sur- 
 prising that it was somewhat deafening," 
 he said, smiling.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 17 
 
 " Thousands ! " she repeated, in an 
 astonished tone. 
 
 " You must understand that when the 
 rear boats saw you and raised the alarm, 
 it was taken up by the fore ranks. They 
 took your balloon for some ship bearing- 
 down on them, and were apprehensive 
 lest any of the boats should be swamped. 
 They are all in a crippled condition you 
 see," he said explanatorily. 
 
 " Yes, when I saw that, and found 
 myself drifting out to sea, I decided to 
 cut the ropes and take my chance in the 
 car, it is provided with a cork keel." 
 
 " So I observed, and it struck me as an 
 excellent precaution." 
 
 " You must wonder at my choosing 
 such a strange hour for an ascent. But 
 I only intended it to be a captive one, 
 such as I had made several times with 
 some of our friends last night, when Mrs. 
 Colborne, my aunt, held a reception." 
 
 " Captive ascents, how charming ! " 
 
 c
 
 1 8 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 he exclaimed, on the impulse of a wish 
 that it had been his good fortune to make 
 one of the guests. " Instead of relaxing 
 oneself on the stair of oak, or some such 
 wood, as one is so often glad to do now 
 to escape crowded reception-rooms ; how 
 much more pleasant to 
 
 " Ascend the stair of some star-beam rare," 
 
 and 
 
 " Hear the roll 
 Of the mighty spheric chime." 
 
 He could see a smile flickering about 
 her lips as she made answer, 
 
 " But the star-beams being particularly 
 rare, we ascended instead on the beams of 
 a Bengal light ; and we only heard the 
 ' roll ' made by the musicians below.", 
 
 " Nevertheless it must have been most 
 delightful. How many will your balloon 
 raise ? " 
 
 " Not more than two when loaded with 
 ballast, grapnel, and such like; but, not 
 requiring these, we were able to ascend
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 19 
 
 in quartettes, except in one case, when a 
 ponderous old gentleman rose with his 
 daughter and myself." 
 
 "I envy that ponderous old gentleman." 
 
 " Your envy is misplaced. He was 
 woefully uneasy lest the rope connecting 
 us with the earth should break, or the 
 balloon explode or the car give way. 
 He vowed on landing he would never rise 
 to heaven again, at least, in the flesh." 
 
 O'Rorke laughed, he had not looked for 
 drollery from this sombre-eyed witch. 
 
 " And so you were minded to make an 
 ascent alone." 
 
 "Yes, when our guests had departed I 
 felt too restless to think of sleep, and 
 resolved to flee into the clouds to exercise 
 the unquiet spirit possessing me." 
 
 " Ah, what hour was that ? " he asked, 
 wondering whether the restlessness that 
 had caused her to seek solitude, arose 
 from happy excitement or troubled dis- 
 turbance. 
 
 c 2
 
 20 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 " It must have been about three o'clock 
 when I left Chelsea. I had been up not 
 more than half an hour, and was about 
 to descend by means of the windlass, 
 when the Serena suddenly shot up. At 
 first I thought the rope must have given 
 way, but I soon remembered how eager 
 Shootoo, a monkey my father made a pet 
 of, had been to accompany me, and how 
 angrily he had howled when Thrupp the 
 man who takes charge of the Serena 
 drove him off. I feel sure that he must 
 have cut the rope out of revenge." 
 
 " The imp ! He deserves to be hanged 
 therewith ! How it must have dismayed 
 you to find yourself at the mercy of the 
 winds." 
 
 " I confess it did, when I found it 
 was impossible to get at the valve-rope. 
 Thrupp had loosely knotted it up out of 
 reach of any curious fingers. I could 
 only hope for a condensation, but that 
 hope turned to fear when I remembered I
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 21 
 
 had no ballast, wherewith to moderate 
 my descent, should the condensation be 
 great. I was glad to find the instrument 
 case was in its place under the seat, and I 
 had the key in my pocket, having changed 
 my evening dress for this that I usually 
 wear on my aerial travels. I could not 
 unpack the compass fast enough. It told 
 me I was drifting towards the north, 
 while the barometer showed my altitude to 
 be over 1,900 feet." 
 
 " How anxiously you must have watched 
 those instruments ! " 
 
 " I did little else. They indicated, 
 though, but little variation in my course, 
 until an hour and thirty minutes had 
 passed, when the barometer told me the 
 Serena was decreasing her altitude; and 
 soon after the needle pointed out that she 
 had sunk into a current that would bear 
 her out to sea. How I wished for rain, 
 that it might hasten the depression in 
 time for her to save the land. There
 
 22 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 were clouds beneath me, so I could see no 
 lights, but I distinctly heard the note of a 
 mole-cricket." 
 
 "A sound I have always had a great 
 dislike to, but its sharp pitch must have 
 been welcome to your ears ! " he said, 
 drawing a mental picture of her, speeding 
 in her aerial chariot through black space. 
 
 " Much more so, I can assure you, than 
 that which followed, a sound as of breakers, 
 followed by a rapid condensation of gas, 
 which convinced me I must be over the 
 sea. But when I sunk below the clouds 
 and saw these beacons, I thought I must 
 have been mistaken, and was descend- 
 ing near a town. Indeed, mindful of 
 chimneys, I was beginning to wind up 
 the guide-rope, when I saw the lights 
 came from lines of boats, and not from 
 streets. I shall never forget the minutes 
 when it was doubtful whether the current 
 would sweep me past them, away into 
 that hopeless blackness ! " looking over
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 23 
 
 the waters to where no beacon shed its 
 ray, or herring-shoal its soft shimmer. 
 
 " How anxious your friends must be 
 feeling about you ! " 
 
 " I daresay they know nothing about 
 what has happened as yet, for I told my 
 maid and Thrupp not to wait up for me. 
 But I must telegraph to my aunt directly 
 we reach Yarmouth. Ah, now I can 
 pack the Serena ! " she exclaimed, rising. 
 
 Turning his head, he saw a dark mass 
 lying on the deck, and springing up from 
 his seat an empty cask he said, 
 
 4 'It does seem practicable now to dispose 
 of her as you desired. Will you entrust 
 the disposal to me ? I assure you I will 
 be carefulness itself." 
 
 " I should be most glad if you would 
 help me. I suppose the men will begin 
 to haul in their nets presently ; I see the 
 day is breaking," she said, glancing 
 towards the faint line of light defining the 
 horizon.
 
 24 The Witch of Adas. 
 
 " Pray don't you trouble, Miss Keppel, 
 the deck is quite slippery. If I need 
 assistance, I will get one of the men to 
 help me." 
 
 "Whilst Derrick O'Rorke was busy aft, 
 she watched the grey line broaden into a 
 luminous zone. Soon the wide stretch of 
 tumbling sea was plainly visible, no longer 
 mysterious with jetty blackness or allur- 
 ing with fitful gleams of soft radiance. 
 
 So, the wind blowing freshly against 
 one pale cheek, she sat and watched. 
 
 " And withal did ever keep 
 The tenour of her contemplations calm, 
 With open eyes, closed feet, and folded palm."
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 25 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 " With rapid race 
 
 The light sail coyly flies the wind's embrace, 
 Eager to be pursued the while." 
 
 W. J. A. 
 
 BY the time O'Rorke had reduced this 
 cumbersome tissue to a compactly folded 
 bale, and stowed it away in the car, 
 the deck was a scene of busy commo- 
 tion, attendant on the hauling in of the 
 net. 
 
 "We shall soon set sail now," said 
 O'Rorke, returning to the figure sitting 
 on the rug-covered crate. 
 
 " "What an overwhelming draught ! " 
 she said, watching the interminable meshy 
 length, as straining under the weight 
 of the night's harvest, it was drawn,
 
 2 6 The Witch of A tlas. 
 
 all gleaming and dripping, from the 
 sea. 
 
 " I am afraid you will have every 
 reason to ' gather in ' your * braw peliss,' * 
 he said, looking down on her mouse- 
 coloured dress. 
 
 " I shall never hear that song again 
 but I shall see this scene ; " and it was 
 a thoughtful look that she turned on the 
 busy fleet, each boat of which was so 
 exact a counterpart of her neighbour. 
 
 There was that in her remark which 
 jarred on his contented mood. It was a 
 suggestive remark. And he was averse to 
 thinking of the present as lapsed into the 
 past, of this now existing companionship 
 dissolved into a remembrance only. 
 Taking advantage of her averted eyes, 
 he scrutinized her features, now illumined 
 by the dawn. But already had those 
 features become minutely imprinted on 
 his mind, even to the -little black mole, 
 marking the white curve of her chin.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 27 
 
 And now the net was safely boarded ; 
 the take proving a highly satisfactory one, 
 inasmuch that even the skipper's grim 
 visage relaxed. Moreover, he agreeably 
 received O'Rorke's request, that he would 
 be good enough to run the boat alongside 
 number 2-29, the Mary Jane, in order 
 that he might recover his coat, &c. 
 
 The men working with a will, the mast 
 was soon re-erected, the sail set, and the 
 vessel tacking for number 229, which 
 boat was not as yet under way. 
 
 As the smack was in the act of running 
 by number 229, a dark bundle was thrown 
 by one of the latter's crew on to the deck 
 of the former, towards which were also 
 directed sundry glances of open curiosity, 
 which at once singled out that favoured 
 boat's fair passenger. 
 
 Possessing himself of the said bundle, 
 O'Rorke went below. As the last of the 
 wan yellow beacons disappeared, the sun's 
 strong red disk shot its broad level beams
 
 28 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 over the line of water, revealing the 
 glancing whiteness of the sails that were 
 now every moment being set. 
 
 " By the powers, one might take it for 
 a regatta I " was the remark that caused 
 Gytha Keppel to turn her head, and for 
 the first time she beheld O'Rorke " in his 
 habit as he lived," neither shrinking in 
 drenched clothes, nor travestying in 
 borrowed ones. 
 
 "Yes, it is quite exciting to watch 
 them, they all seem so eager to be fore- 
 most ! " she responded, as together they 
 observed the gay company of vessels 
 swiftly pursuing their course ; " I had no 
 idea they could look so graceful. And 
 how quickly they unfolded their wings, 
 and took flight ! I wish a balloon were 
 as quickly inflated as a vessel is rigged." 
 
 " You think of returning to Chelsea by 
 aerial route," he said, with a quick, ques- 
 tioning look. 
 
 " Now that the wind has so favourably
 
 The Wiich of Atlas. 29 
 
 changed, I feel tempted to do so. Of 
 course, there are gas-works at Yar- 
 mouth ? " 
 
 " Yes, and conveniently accessible. E 
 hope you will consider me at your service, 
 and allow me to undertake the little 
 matter of getting the Serena conveyed 
 there," he said, with eager courtesy. 
 
 " Thank you very much, Mr. O'Rorke ; 
 your kind offer decides me. I have a 
 great dislike to railway travelling." 
 
 " I can imagine you must find it in- 
 sufferably irksome, after experiencing 
 your delightful mode of travelling. 
 You must be thoroughly conversant with 
 the science to venture on an excursion 
 alone. I presume you have made many 
 ascents." 
 
 " The last was my forty-ninth." 
 
 " Indeed ! Y^ou must have pretty well 
 made ' the grand tour of the skies.' ' 
 
 A smile lit up her face, then quickly 
 died away.
 
 30 The Witch, of Atlas. 
 
 " Ballooning was my father's favourite 
 recreation," she replied, in a subdued tone ; 
 " and from the time I was twelve years 
 old, he often used to take me with him 
 in his ascents. He only objected to my 
 joining him in those he made from 
 Algiers." 
 
 " Algiers ! " he repeated quickly. 
 
 " Yes, we always wintered there, on 
 account of his health. The only one 
 I have ever spent elsewhere was the 
 one following his death, three years 
 ago." 
 
 She paused, and, seeing that her feelings 
 were painfully moved, he for a while turned 
 his eyes on a smack running near, and pre- 
 served a sympathetic silence. Presently, 
 he broke it by a question he hoped would 
 beguile her into speaking of her Algerian 
 life. 
 
 " You have, then, never ascended from 
 the Dark Continent ? " 
 
 " Only captive ascents, on account of
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 31 
 
 the sea being so near, and the inland 
 so wild. But captive though they be, 
 they are very enjoyable when the 
 atmosphere is clear, and the Mediter- 
 ranean can be seen stretching away 
 on one side, and Mount Atlas on the 
 other." 
 
 To his ears the latter name fell from her 
 lips like a spell. 
 
 " It must be glorious ! Climb and toil 
 how he would, an earthling could never 
 reap such a bounteous eye-harvest as you 
 must, in the scythe-sweep of a glance. 
 Does your foot ever go gleaning, after 
 your eye has done its reaping ? I mean 
 among the fair vales of those moun- 
 tains." . 
 
 " Yes, it is very prone to do so," she 
 replied, her face taking an expression 
 that told him how sweet were her 
 memories 
 
 ." Of the white stream, and of the forest green." 
 
 " To speak literally of reaping," she
 
 32 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 went on slowly, " Mrs. Meredith, the lady 
 who lives with me, and I often go there 
 and watch the reapers ; and sometimes 
 we climb the mountain to see how the 
 vines are flourishing. My father possessed 
 several vineyards on one of the Tell 
 mountains, in which he used to take a 
 great interest, so I still retain them. He 
 had a log-cabin built up there, where we 
 rest after our climb of nearly 2000 
 feet." 
 
 " I remember admiring the condition 
 of some vineyards thereabouts," said 
 O'Rorke, resolving to broach the theme of 
 his thoughts. 
 
 " You have been on the Atlas, then ! " 
 " Yes, I passed a day there about four 
 years since, climbing and exploring, until 
 I could climb and explore no more for 
 very fatigue, so threw myself down to 
 rest. When, ' It might have been a fancy, 
 or it might have been a dream,' but as I 
 lay there, the very counterpart of yourself 
 passed quickly by my nook."
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 33 
 
 " About four years since ?" she repeated, 
 with a questioning glance that ended in a 
 look of sad comprehension. " Was it, do 
 you remember, the evening of the 13th 
 of November ? " 
 
 " The selfsame ! " 
 
 " Doubtless then it was I. We, my father 
 and I, had been up on the mountain, and 
 as we were descending he caught his foot 
 in the trunk of a tree, and was thrown 
 forward with such force that he dislocated 
 his knee." 
 
 " How unfortunate ! And you were 
 going for assistance when I saw you ? " 
 
 " Yes, I was on my way to a vine- 
 dresser's cottage." 
 
 " How I wish I had known, that I 
 might have gone in your stead ! I hope 
 the accident was not serious ? But, of 
 course, a dislocated knee is serious." 
 
 " It was, indeed ! He never walked 
 after without the use of a crutch." Her 
 voice drooped sadly into silence.
 
 34 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 In the course of their ensuing conver- 
 sation, he intimated to her that he was 
 studying for the law, and intended on the 
 morrow to bring his few days' sojourn in 
 Yarmouth to a close, and return to the 
 legal atmosphere which atmosphere, he 
 might say, he had inhaled with the first 
 breath he had drawn, having been born in 
 the Inner Temple. Then, in answer to a 
 question of hers, he went on to say that, 
 his father having successfully conducted 
 numerous law-suits, and made himself 
 of high repute, had entered ioto a suit 
 of a more sentimental nature, with 
 a ward in chancery the niece and dis- 
 puted heiress of General Boswell the 
 suit at last satisfactorily terminating in 
 the lady, and the Court, granting their 
 long-withheld sanction to the union. As 
 was then not at all an unusual proceed- 
 ing with Inns-of-Court benedicts, he had 
 installed his wife in his chambers in the 
 Inner Temple, where ultimately he, their
 
 TJie Witch of Atlas. 35 
 
 only son, first saw the light ; and in that 
 legal sanctuary had passed his tender 
 years, a law-consecrated child Derrick. 
 
 " The first joyous emotion of which I 
 have any recollection," he said, in a slower 
 tone, " was occasioned by my mother 
 equipping me with reins of red tape ; and 
 my first grievous one, by my father 
 chastising me for making a paper-ship of 
 an important document, and all but reduc- 
 ing it to pulp in one of the fountains." 
 
 ** That was a crime indeed ! " she said, 
 a smiling light in her attentive eyes, that 
 filled with sympathetic interest as he 
 proceeded to say, how, on waking one 
 morning, his nurse imparted the to his 
 childish mind ambiguous information 
 that he was an orphan. 
 
 The previous evening, while returning 
 from Twickenham, a fatal accident had 
 befallen his parents, their boat being 
 run down by a pleasure-steamer. Within 
 a week of the calamity, miles of 
 D 2
 
 36 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 English land and Irish sea lay be fc ween 
 him and his birthplace ; his father's 
 brother having received him and his 
 baby sister into his family. When he 
 again entered the Temple, he had more 
 than quadruplicated his years, and, having 
 now been keeping terms for three years, 
 expected shortly to be called to the 
 Bar. 
 
 Yarmouth was now well in sight; the 
 green foliage of the trees, and red roofs 
 of the houses, showing with fine effect 
 between the thickly-standing masts. In a 
 few minutes they passed between the old 
 wooden piers, flanking the mouth of the 
 Yare. 
 
 As they slowly proceeded up the river, 
 the bold looks of curiosity wherewith 
 those on the busy wharf eyed his com- 
 panion, caused O'Rorke's brows to 
 contract unpleasantly. His face turned 
 white, and hers crimson, as a leering 
 loafer bawled after the smack,
 
 Witch of Atlas. 37 
 
 " Hallo, skipper ! Be her a mermaid 
 ye've hawled in ? Do her end in a 
 tail ? " 
 
 Audible amusement, both ashore and 
 aboard, followed this coarse sally. 
 
 " The knave the clowns ! " muttered 
 O'Rorke. " Shall we go down into the 
 cabin until the boat is moored?" he said, 
 turning to her. " It is an uninviting hole, 
 but" 
 
 " It will be better than being here," 
 she said, with an asperity that told of keen 
 annoyance. 
 
 " What a queer, dark little place," she 
 said a minute later, as with fading colour 
 and clearing brow, she seated herself on 
 a locker. 
 
 " It has not even a fire to improve its 
 aspect now," he remarked, looking down on 
 the dead ashes in the rusty grate ; " and 
 now, Miss Keppel," he went on, leaning his 
 elbow on a convenient rung of the ladder, 
 and regarding her with a business-like air,
 
 38 77te Witch of Atlas. 
 
 " you must be sadly in want of a cup of 
 tea. There is an excellent hotel on the 
 Parade. Will you allow rne to conduct 
 you-" 
 
 " Thank you very much, Mr. O'Rorke, 
 but I dislike the thought of going to an 
 hotel," she said hastily, adding in a 
 moderated tone, " I daresay I can find a 
 confectioner's in the town." 
 
 He looked at her dubiously, as though 
 he did not at all fancy the notion, but 
 could not improve on it. 
 
 After a minute's pondering, he said 
 eagerly, 
 
 " An idea has just struck me ! The 
 skipper of the boat in which I started 
 a regular Yarmouth bloater, with a 
 Devonshire dumpling of a wife owns 
 a domicile in a certain Row close by, 
 where I am sure you would find welcome 
 and cheer of sterling, if homely, quality ; 
 that is to say, if my idea recommends 
 itself to you."
 
 The Witch of Atlas . 39 
 
 A needless addition, seeing the look of 
 relief with which she had received it. 
 
 " I should be most glad to adopt it, if 
 you feel confident they would excuse the 
 intrusion, and be willing to accommodate 
 me?" 
 
 " As { willin' ' as Barkiss, I assure you. 
 ' Excuse the intrusion ! ' They will value 
 it as a visit of honour. Then, before I 
 see about getting a vehicle for the balloon, 
 I will conduct you thither." 
 
 " But my telegram I must see to that 
 first," she said. 
 
 " You must allow me to dispatch that, 
 on my way to the works." 
 
 " I think the boat has come to a stand- 
 still. I will run up and see," and he disap- 
 peared up the ladder. 
 
 She had but time to scribble down her 
 aunt's address when his figure again 
 darkened the opening. 
 
 " Yes, Miss Keppel, they are mooring 
 her on," he said, bending and looking 
 down.
 
 40 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 So, quickly rising, she mounted the 
 ladder, accepting the help of the hand he 
 stretched down. 
 
 The deck was already in the stir of 
 unloading. As she passed the skipper, 
 she shook hands with him, by way of 
 leave-taking, and tendered him her 
 " fare," as she called it ; her manner 
 expressing a sense of obligation nothing 
 more. But it also expressed a deep sense 
 of gratitude, when, coming again to a 
 halt, she thanked her other preserver, 
 concluding with, " Will you please accept, 
 and turn this into tobacco ? " and O'Rorke 
 saw a golden coin exchange the fair soft- 
 ness of her hand for the brown horniness 
 of the smacksman's. 
 
 Leaving the vessel, they plunged into 
 the midst of the jostling crowd, and con- 
 fusing hubbub of shrill female and gruff 
 male voices, over which a vigorously rung 
 bell maintained a brassy triumph. 
 
 Between numbers of carts, piles of fish-
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 41 
 
 crates, and eager knots of fish-fags, 
 O'Rorke adroitly piloted his fair charge. 
 Presently they turned off from the wharf, 
 into a Row so narrow, that, finding it a 
 difficult matter to walk abreast, O'Rorke 
 soon dropped a pace behind, their con- 
 versation being thus rendered doubly 
 charming to his mind by an occasional 
 profile-revealing turn of the hooded head 
 in advance of him. Moreover, he could 
 observe how light and easily she stepped 
 along over the rough, ankle-twisting 
 coble-stones. How some of his fair 
 acquaintances would have limped, hob- 
 bled, and halted, over these selfsame 
 touchstones of grace ! 
 
 Emerging from this narrow passage, 
 they crossed a main street, and entered 
 another Eow of wider dimensions. As, 
 side by side, they continued on their 
 way, O'Rorke advanced a request that 
 had been near his lips for some time 
 past, namely, that she would allow him to
 
 42 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 accompany her in her ascent. She had 
 probably been anticipating this request, 
 and had secretly resolved to grant it. 
 Being such an experienced balloonist, 
 she counted the request of but little 
 more importance than if her new acquaint- 
 ance, to whom she was so deeply indebted, 
 had asked to accompany her in the same 
 railway carriage to London. She therefore 
 granted the favour without demur, much 
 to O'Rorke's gratification.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 43 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 " Oh thou, who ; plumed with strong desire, 
 Would float above the earth, beware ! " 
 
 Shelley. 
 
 " THIS is tlie house, Miss Keppel," lie 
 announced, as they reached an open door- 
 way, overhung by a projecting upper 
 window ; " and here is Mrs. Potter," he 
 added, lifting his hat, as from the dark 
 interior there appeared a middle-aged 
 woman, chiefly remarkable for plump 
 rotundity of face and figure. 
 
 "Good-day to 'ee, sir," she said, dropping 
 a courtesy. " I was thinkin' to myself that 
 p'r'aps 'ee'd come along wi' Joe. But I 
 reckoned wrong I see," and she looked 
 with sharp wonder towards Gytha. 
 
 O'Rorke hastened to acquaint her with
 
 44 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 the circumstances that had brought a 
 would-be guest to her door. 
 
 With a fluster of hospitality, she begged 
 the lady would come in and make the best 
 of things. " But bain't 'ee comin' in, sir," 
 she broke off, seeing that he remained on 
 the threshold. 
 
 " I will partake of your hospitality 
 with pleasure, Mrs. Potter, after attend- 
 ing to a little business at the gas-works. 
 Now, Miss Keppel, what shall I say to 
 your aunt?" 
 
 "Say, please, 'No cause for alarm. 
 Safe at Yarmouth. Am returning to-day. 1 
 You have the address ? " 
 
 " Yes ; 'Mrs. Colbourne, Rutland Lodge, 
 Chelsea.' I will return as quickly as 
 possible ; but pray don't wait breakfast, 
 Miss Keppel. Au revoir" 
 
 " Sure, but 'tis a pity Mr. O'Eorke is 
 obliged to leave 'ee, Miss," lamented the 
 housewife, as she conducted her visitor up 
 a steep flight of stairs, " I am 'fraid 'ee will
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 45 
 
 find it lonesome like; but I s'pose 'a couldn't 
 put off his business at the works." 
 
 "It is to see about the filling of my 
 balloon," said Gytha. " I hope they will 
 be able to spare me the gas." 
 
 " La, now ! be them there things filled 
 with gas ! I always thought them was 
 filled with air. However do 'ee live in that 
 nasty stuff, miss ? I've heard as how 'tis 
 sure to kill 'ee, if 'ee are shut up in it." 
 
 " But I am not shut up in it," said 
 Gytha, quickly guessing the woman was 
 labouring under the mistake common 
 with simple folks, that aeronauts travel 
 inside their balloons ; " there is a car 
 attached to the balloon, and unless the gas 
 is escaping very freely from the neck 
 it does not affect the air I breathe." 
 
 " Now only to think ! I never heard 
 tell of no car before. Bat bain't 'ee 'fraid 
 of tumblin' out?" 
 
 " Oh, no ; the car is as steady as this 
 room." They were now standing in what
 
 46 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 was evidently the state-room of the house. 
 "Now, miss," said Mrs. Potter, throw- 
 ing open another door, which gave 
 admittance to an adjoining bedroom, "I'm 
 sure 'ee-will be glad of a wash. And I'll 
 go down and hurry with the breakfast." 
 
 In a few minutes, having removed her 
 hood and jacket, Gytha returned to the 
 sitting-room, and seated herself in the 
 projecting window. 
 
 Her eyes, having studied the herring- 
 bone masonry of the opposite house until 
 they were weary, turned to the quaintly 
 furnished sitting-room. What an irregular 
 room it was ! The floor and ceiling form- 
 ing a decided incline towards the window, 
 and the walls deviating from a straight 
 line, insomuch that the further end of the 
 room was but one-third the breadth of 
 the other. A. low, chintz-covered sofa just 
 fitted into the contracted space ; a cosy 
 nook, reached only by sidling along a pon- 
 derous table, whose broad round face shone
 
 The Witch q/ Atlas. 47 
 
 right bravely despite the ravages of time ; 
 indeed, the only thing that did not appear 
 age-worn, was a handsomely framed por- 
 trait which hung above the carved 
 chimney-piece, a portrait that Grytha 
 regarded with an attention that showed 
 the fair pictured face had deeply engaged 
 her interest as well it might, seen 
 amidst such incongruous surroundings. 
 Its dainty grace would have attracted 
 attention had it been hung in a gallery of 
 " fair women." The term " woman," how- 
 ever, was scarcely applicable to it. A 
 girlish blitheness looked saucily from the 
 black-fringed blue eyes, bloomed softly 
 on the dimpled cheek, smiled archly on the 
 crimson-warm lips. 
 
 Leaning her head against the high 
 back of her roomy basket-chair, Gytha 
 studied each charming detail of the perfect 
 whole, until her eyelids, oppressed with 
 drowsiness, drooped into repose. 
 
 Ten minutes later they started into
 
 48 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 wakefulness, at the sound of a turning 
 handle and clinking china. 
 
 " La ! now, if I hav'n't agone and 
 wakened 'ee ! " exclaimed Mrs. Pobter, 
 halting in the doorway that seemed 
 scarcely wide enough to admit the 
 enormous, well-laden tray she carried. 
 
 " I suppose I must have been asleep, 
 for I was certainly dreaming," said Gytha, 
 as she rose and placed a chair vis-a-vis 
 with a fellow ; a performance Mrs. Potter's 
 right foot had been making dislocating 
 attempts to effect. 
 
 " Thank 'ee, miss ; but 'ee shouldn't 
 have troubled," she said, depositing her 
 tray on the makeshift stand. " I'm glad 
 'ee had a nap, miss ; maybe it's a bit rested 
 'ee feel ? " she said, spreading a blue-white 
 cloth over the table's broad face. 
 
 " Thank you, I did not feel tired, or 
 sleepy, to my knowledge ; but while I was 
 looking at that portrait, I drifted into 
 dreaming of it."
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 49 
 
 " Bain't shea booty ! ! ' said her hostess, 
 enthusiasm in her tone, and pride in her 
 eyes. " I daresay 'ee wonder how I came 
 by such a picter as that, and maybe 'ee 
 would like to know ? Well, 'twas just 
 this," she went on, proceeding to arrange 
 on the table the huddled contents of the 
 tray; "Joe, that's my old man, saved 
 that very young lady from drownin'. She 
 was a-bathin' one mornin' and ventured too 
 far, as young ladies will. Her father, Mr. 
 O'Rorke, was that grateful 'a would have 
 done anything for Joe ; and Miss Eileen 
 she used to come here often to see 'un, 
 and afore she went back to Ireland she 
 got quite fond of 'un like, and me too for 
 the matter o' that. And 'ee may be sure 
 such a sweet young lady found a place in 
 our hearts ; I cried like a babby the day 
 she went away, and so did Joe, though 'a 
 wouldn't own to it. Well, would 'ee b'lieve 
 it, nigh on a month after she left, there 
 was a gran' knockin' at the door, and 
 

 
 5O The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 when I ran out, there stood a carrier-man 
 with a great case that filled up the door- 
 way. I told 'un it couldn't be for here 
 nohow, but 'a said, ' Bain't your husban's 
 name, Cap'n Potter?' 'Ess sure,' I said, 
 ' Well, then, this here case is for he, and 
 none other,' 'a said, and carried it 
 straight into the kitchen. When my old 
 man came home, 'a knocked off the cover 
 o' the box, and there was that bootiful 
 picter ! And as like to her it is as two 
 peas. Then us found a dear little letter 
 tucked in at the back, sayin' as how she'd 
 had it painted for Joe and me. The next 
 summer, two years agone now, they came 
 again, and Miss Eileen brought her cousin 
 to see me. But bless me, if I don't look 
 sharp 'a will be back again afore I've got 
 the breakfast up ! And there's, I might 'a 
 bin cuttin' the bread and butter while 
 I've bin pratin'," she said, grasping the 
 loaf with one hand and the bread-knife 
 in the other.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 5 1 
 
 " Pray let me do that, Mrs. Potter," 
 said Gytha, going to the table. 
 
 " 'Deed, miss, I should be real glad 
 if 'ee would, for I left the frying-pan 
 on the hob, and its burnin' the fish 
 maybe if I don't look after 'em," and 
 she- hastened downstairs to prevent that 
 disaster. 
 
 The sound of her footsteps had scarcely 
 died away, when the stairs again creaked 
 under ascending footfalls; but instead of 
 Mrs. Potter, O'Rorke appeared in the 
 doorway. 
 
 Certes, there was little that was weird 
 and much that was homely about the 
 witch of the present, was the thought 
 that passed through his mind, as his 
 glance alighted on the lithesome figure 
 bending over the breakfast-table, at once 
 noting how dark was the hair coiled 
 around the shapely head, and how fair the 
 sweeping neck. 
 
 "This is a speedier return than I 
 E 2
 
 52 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 anticipated," she said, as turning her head 
 she revealed to him a faintly flushing cheek. 
 
 " A trolly was quickly forthcoming," 
 he said, with an easy smile, " and we made 
 all despatch in getting to the works, 
 where I left the Serena gradually recover- 
 ing from her exhaustion." 
 
 " I have been wondering whether you 
 would think of the suspending ropes I 
 cut. I intended to ask you to get them 
 replaced," she said, glancing at him ques- 
 tioningly. 
 
 "Yes, I have seen to that, and also 
 to the ballast-bags. I think I have been 
 singularly fortunate this morning, having 
 in each instance found the right man in 
 the right place." 
 
 Mrs. Potter now hurried in with the 
 replenished tray, and quickly added to the 
 table a brightly shining teapot, a dish of 
 fried herrings, and some boiled eggs. She 
 then placed a chair for Gytha, who was 
 about to take it, when she observed that 
 the table was laid for two only.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 53 
 
 " I hope you are going to join us, Mrs. 
 Potter," she said, turning to that good 
 dame. 
 
 " 'Deed, miss, but I broke my fast 
 hours agone. But if so be 'ee would like, 
 I will sit me down and do a bit o' knittin'," 
 and having placed a second chair for 
 O'Rorke, she moved to the window, and 
 taking from her apron-pocket a legless 
 stocking, she disposed of her own ample 
 person in the roomy basket-chair. 
 
 " They were willing to supply the gas, 
 then," said Gytha, handing him a most 
 capacious cup of tea. 
 
 "Yes, quite so. Indeed, the director 
 evinced great interest in the Serena. 
 How long does the inflating process 
 generally take ? " 
 
 " Aboufc two hours." 
 
 " Then we shall be able to start before 
 noon," he said, carefully dissecting his fish. 
 
 Not receiving any reply, he looked up 
 quickly, to perceive an expression on her 
 face that rather puzzled him.
 
 54 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 " I wish you were not so desirous of 
 making the ascent," she said, in a con- 
 cerned tone ; " accidents are liable to 
 happen, and I should feel responsible for 
 your safety," she concluded, with a smile. 
 
 " If," said he, " there is no weighty 
 objection in my avoirdupois, there can be 
 no likelihood of my causing a disaster. I 
 hope in the case of a common casualty 
 to be of service to you. Do you know 
 Mrs. Potter," he went on, glancing at the 
 industrious knitter, "that I am about to 
 take a peep into cloudland ?" 
 
 " Awh, 'ee bain't agoin' up in the 
 balloon surely, sir ? " she asked, looking up 
 with dolorous surprise. 
 
 " Yes," he nodded gaily. " * All are not 
 born to soar,' but assuredly I was ! " 
 
 " Maybe 'ee will soar down'ards when 
 'ee will least fancy," she said, her doleful 
 tone changing to an emphatic one. " Drat 
 them old belloons, I say ! Excoose me, 
 miss, but it do' seem so tempting provi-
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 55 
 
 dence to try to go up so high. I've been 
 wonderin' to myself if 'twould be of any 
 good for me to try to turn 'ee from goin' 
 up again yourself." 
 
 "It is very good of you, Mrs. Potter, 
 to trouble about me ; but it would be the 
 greatest deprivation to me to give up my 
 recreation." 
 
 "Well, I do hope 'ee will be careful. 
 How high up do 'ee go, miss ? " 
 
 "Between six and eight thousand feet 
 generally, but I have been carried as 
 high as four miles." 
 
 " Bless my life ! I should be 'fraid of 
 goin' right up through the sky ! " 
 
 " Oh, there is no fear of that," asserted 
 the aeronaut, confining her amusement 
 augmented by the glance that O'Rorke, 
 directed towards her to a quivering- 
 smile. 
 
 " I am glad to hear that," said O'Eoike, 
 with an assumed air of relief. " It would 
 be an awkward intrusion. We should
 
 56 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 be literally what the Polynesians term 
 foreigners, papalangi, or in our language, 
 heaven -bursters . ' ' 
 
 " There's Joe ! " exclaimed Mrs. Potter, 
 starting up, as a gruff throat-clearing 
 sound rose from below. Telling them to 
 bump on the floor if they needed anything, 
 she hastened down to welcome the re- 
 turned night-toiler. 
 
 A silence fell on the two she had left 
 that was at length broken by O'Eorke 
 observing, 
 
 " It is unfortunate the day has become 
 so overcast ; but I assume it does not- 
 much signify so long as the wind keeps in 
 the right quarter. I do hope it may not 
 shift round to the west. I suppose you 
 find the temperature vary greatly during 
 an ascent?" 
 
 " Yes, indeed ; it seems at times as 
 though the months were running riot in 
 space. Sometimes I encounter a soft 
 shower, that makes me fancy April is
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 57 
 
 hovering near. Then I suddenly find 
 myself enwrapped in a fog such as 
 November brings to the earth ; to pre- 
 sently mount into the heat of August. 
 And, again, I have left summer holding 
 terrestrial reign, and risen into a snow- 
 storm." 
 
 " Then doubtless you have encountered 
 a thunder- storin?" he said, remembering 
 how the wind-riding witch, " laughed to 
 hear the fire-balls roar behind." 
 
 "Yes, on two occasions," she replied. 
 " The first time I was with my father, 
 and we surmounted the storm and watched 
 it from above." 
 
 " It must have been a grand spectacle. 
 I once viewed one from the Alps ; but your 
 experience must have been an improvement 
 on mine." 
 
 At this minute Mrs. Potter re-entered 
 the room. With a formal, embarrassed air, 
 she addressed her fair guest, 
 
 " My husban', miss, 'a have sent me
 
 58 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 to tell 'ee 'a would be main glad to see 
 the last of 'ee, if so be 'ee will be good 
 enough to let 'im be alongside when the 
 belloon goes up ? " 
 
 " Certainly, Mrs. Potter," she answered, 
 with a relieved readiness that interpreted 
 to O'Eorke her startled look at the open- 
 ing of the good dame's speech. His eyes 
 fell, and he made use of his handkerchief. 
 " I was intending to ask you if you would 
 accompany me to the works," continued 
 Miss Keppel. " Will you tell your hus- 
 band we hope to ascend about noon ? " 
 
 " Thank 'ee kindly, miss, 'twill be a rare 
 sight for us. Joe be that curious to see 
 how her be rigged : 'a will be up to offer 
 'ee his dooty, miss, as soon as ever 'a have 
 had bit and sop." 
 
 " I shall be pleased to make his ac- 
 quaintance," she said, rising from the 
 table. 
 
 As O'Rorke also rose, his eyes met the
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 59 
 
 lifelike gaze of the fair semblance above 
 the chimney-piece. Immediately averting 
 them, he passed on to the window. 
 
 " What a splendid chrysanthemum ! " 
 he said, regarding with genuine admira- 
 tion the mass of fanciful green leaves and 
 creamy-white blooms, adorning the open 
 casement. " Will you spare me one for 
 my button-hole, Mrs. Potter ? " 
 
 " Ess sure, sir, as many as ever 'ee 
 like," she said, and hastening over she 
 snipped off flower after flower, heedless of 
 protestation. 
 
 " There, sir, I'm proud 'ee should fancy 
 'em. Maybe 'ee would like a few, miss ? " 
 
 " Surely there is plenty for both here," 
 said O'Rorke, looking down on his gigantic 
 " buttonhole," and extracting therefrom a 
 single flower, he tendered the rest to 
 Gytha, who inserted the sweet-smelling 
 bunch in her waistband. 
 
 " Faith, if she be not a witch, she is
 
 60 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 decidedly an enigma ! Who would 
 imagine, seeing her just now engaged in 
 her domestic task, and talking so sociably 
 the while, that she could ever find 
 pleasure in welkin exile. Fancy Eileen 
 voluntarily plunging into darkness and 
 solitude ! * What differs more than man 
 from man ? ' asked the Bard of Rydal. 
 What differs more than maid from maid ? 
 ask I ! " 
 
 So queried to himself the " Knight 
 Templar " such he had been dubbed by 
 his Dublin kith and kin as he retraced 
 his way to the gas-works ; G-ytha having 
 arranged to follow shortly with Mrs. 
 Potter.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 61 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 "Thou serenest air, 
 
 Through which the sun walks burning without beams ! 
 And ye swift whirlwinds, who on poised wings 
 Hung mute and moveless o'er yon hushed abyss." 
 
 Shelley. 
 
 " LA ! miss, there be silk enough to make 
 a dozen gowns ! " 
 
 This exclamation, so decidedly fraught 
 with envy, broke from Mrs. Potter, who 
 had twice silently circumambulated the re- 
 viving balloon, the first time in gaping 
 astonishment, the second time engaged in 
 a calculation that reduced the alternate 
 white and crimson gores to thirty-six in 
 number. 
 
 " Yes, it must have cost a considerable 
 sum to clothe such a giantess ' in silk
 
 62 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 attire,' " rejoined O'Rorke, gazing up at 
 the towering spheroid, that was gently 
 rocking to and fro, as if unable to passively 
 suffer her restraint. 
 
 " A dozen gowns, if it would make one," 
 regretfully repeated Mrs. Potter. 
 
 " I b'lieve ye'r hankering fur to strip 
 her ! " said the skipper, looking round, 
 with a broad grin to see the effect of his 
 jocular accusation on the gasmen standing 
 by. 
 
 "Don't 'ee bark!" retorted his wife. 
 " Who was it as said jist this minute, as 
 how there was rope enough about her to 
 rig a ship ? " 
 
 A general laugh applauded her sharp 
 reply. 
 
 " But wherever be the car, miss ? " she 
 asked, looking round. "Be thiky thing, 
 it ? " moving towards the spot where stood 
 a wicker-work structure, six feet in length 
 and four in breadth. "It do look cosy," 
 she commented, leaning over the side,
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 63 
 
 smoothing the crimson velvet covering the 
 well-padded benches fixed at either end, 
 and bestowing an admiring glance on the 
 bear's-skin rug that had been replaced. 
 " Whatever fur do 'ee want that, miss ? " 
 she questioned, indicating the machinery 
 that occupied the centre of the car. 
 
 " That is the windlass, for raising 
 and lowering the guide-rope," explained 
 Gytha. " And now, Mrs. Potter, will you 
 come in with me and sit down while I 
 unpack the instruments ? " she added, 
 touching what appeared an ornamental 
 piece of wood affixed without one side 
 of the car, but which, to Mrs. Potter's 
 surprise, magically unfolded into steps. 
 On account of their frail appearance, it 
 needed some persuasion to induce her to 
 avail herself of this means of entry. At 
 last she was comfortably seated, and 
 watched the aeronaut with lively interest, 
 who, drawing a small case from beneath 
 one of the benches, proceeded to unpack
 
 64 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 from between layers of wadding, various 
 instruments, explaining the use of each 
 before she attached it to a board project- 
 ing beyond one side of the carriage. The 
 skipper, who had hove-to alongside, giving 
 an attentive ear and eye, as hygrometer, 
 thermometer, chronometer, and barometers, 
 aneroid and mercurial, were severally 
 introduced. This, to her, somewhat dry 
 source of interest, being exhausted, Mrs. 
 Potter again turned her attention to the 
 oscillating Serena. 
 
 " Doth she wobble like that when she 
 be up, miss ? " she asked. 
 
 " Oh, no ! At least not unless she loses 
 an undue quantity of gas or ballast," 
 Gytha quickly replied, regarding the now 
 shapely balloon with pardonable pride. 
 
 " I 'spects yer find more nor a capful o' 
 wind when yer gets well up, miss," said 
 the fisherman. 
 
 " On the contrary, I never feel a breath," 
 she replied, to his blank astonishment.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 65 
 
 " In one of my ascents a most violent 
 hurricane was raging, but although I saw 
 trees uprooted beneath me, a bit of 
 wadding remained unmoved where I had 
 placed it on this board," touching the one 
 on which the instruments wre arranged. 
 
 " Azackly, miss, I unnerstan',' 5 he re- 
 sponded, with an air that said, " I can't 
 quite swaller that crammer." 
 
 " But indeed, Captain Potter, I am only 
 stating a fact. A balloon is not like a 
 ship, you know; it offers no resistance 
 whatever, but yields itself entirely to the 
 current -impelling it. Directly 1 cast 
 anchor, I feel the full force of the wind." 
 
 Shaken in his opinion, but not convinced 
 by the aeronaut's assertion, the bluff 
 sceptic held his peace. 
 
 Not so the expectant crowd without 
 the works, for since the balloon had raised 
 her head to view, large numbers had been 
 gathering to witness the ascent, and were 
 now signifying their impatience to those 
 
 p
 
 66 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 within, by groaning, hooting, and shout- 
 ing. 
 
 It was close upon noon when the pipe 
 from the gasometer to the neck of the 
 balloon was closed, and the car attached 
 to the hoop. All being in readiness, the 
 aeronaut and her compagnon de voyage 
 took their opposite seats in the basket 
 vehicle. 
 
 " Dear heart alive ! I be all o' a quake," 
 exclaimed Mrs. Potter, as she convulsively 
 grasped the hand Gytha extended her over 
 the side. " I shall scream for sure, when 
 I see 'ee fly up." 
 
 " Then yer had better stand back and 
 shut yer blinkers," said her husband, with 
 blunt pleasantry. " I wuss yer a fair 
 voyage, miss," he added, as in his turn 
 he gripped the supple white hand. " I 
 doesn't know as I'd mind bein' skyward- 
 bound myself. Must be a wery queer way 
 o' sailin', no luffin', nor tackin', nor nothing 
 to do but just sit and be bio wed along ! "
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 6; 
 
 Smiling at his mistaken notion of aerial 
 navigation, Gytha laid hold of one of the 
 ballast-bags suspended outside the car, and 
 in her clear voice gave the signal, " Let 
 
 go." 
 
 The workmen who had been holding 
 
 the ropes, simultaneously yielded their 
 grasp, the balloonist threw out a shower 
 of sand, and it seemed to O'Rorke as 
 though the earth was suddenly sinking, 
 down, down, down, leaving the balloon 
 suspended in motionless quiescence. But, 
 lo, hundreds of hats and handkerchiefs 
 are being frantically waved, hundreds of 
 voices are frantically cheering, and he 
 began to comprehend that no earthquake 
 had happened ; but that the Serena had 
 fairly started. 
 
 How rapidly dwindled the round gaso- 
 meter and huddled crowd ! How rapidly 
 spread the wide panorama of land and sea ! 
 Absorbed in the novelty of his situation, 
 he silently contemplated the strange aspect 
 F 2
 
 68 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 in which familiar objects were now pre- 
 senting themselves to his view. 
 
 Suddenly a fog obscured his vision, and 
 he turned his baffled eyes towards his 
 companion. A misty figure sat in her 
 place. He glanced upwards the balloon 
 was invisible I A chilly feeling of un- 
 reality fell on him an apprehension of 
 witches' devices, their mist- spreading, and 
 spell-workings. He held his breath and 
 listened. The cheering of the multitude 
 had died away; utter silence met his 
 straining ears. 
 
 " What a dense cloud ! I can scarcely 
 see you." 
 
 The sound of her voice instantly restored 
 to him a sense of actuality. 
 
 " Yes, a total eclipse of the earth," he 
 responded, lightly. 
 
 Rays of light, now piercing the opaque- 
 ness, apprised him that they were near 
 the confines of the cloud-layer. A burst 
 of dazzling light, and they soared into
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 69 
 
 a sunny immensity of heavenly space. 
 Looking upward, O'Rorke saw a glorious 
 sweeping arch of intense blue sky ; looking 
 downward, a boundless ocean of cloud 
 billows, rolling swiftly, silently, from east 
 to west. 
 
 As from that frail car, suspended between 
 heaven and earth, he looked abroad on the 
 lifeless, soundless world of air, his soul 
 "Received a shock of awful consciousness." 
 It was a relief to turn to his fellow -being, 
 and in her eyes find what that empty 
 infinitude denied him the response of 
 life. 
 
 " How can you ever endure such awful 
 silence such absolute isolation ! " he 
 exclaimed under his breath. 
 
 "You find it oppressive?" she asked, 
 and . there was a disappointed accent in 
 her tone. 
 
 " Not with your companionship ; but 
 were I alone, I should find it appalling," 
 he admitted, marvelling more than ever at
 
 70 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 her strange predilection. " I wonder how 
 high we are?" 
 
 "Four thousand three hundred and 
 thirty-five feet," she said, consulting the 
 barometers. " That stratus must have been 
 nearly two thousand feet thick. But I am 
 forgetting the guide-rope ! " 
 
 Rising from her seat, she began to work 
 the windlass. 
 
 " You must allow me to do that," he 
 said, rising rather apprehensively to his 
 feet, but to his comfort he felt as secure 
 standing as sitting. 
 
 " It is five hundred feet in length, so it 
 will take some time running out," she said, 
 giving place to him. 
 
 " There's no lack of ascending force," 
 he remarked, as the Serena continued her 
 upward course. 
 
 " The heat of the sun assists it. You 
 should turn to a windlass-song," she added, 
 watching the lessening coils of rope. 
 
 " I am sorry I know none such."
 
 The Witch of Atlas. / 1 
 
 " But any would answer the purpose." 
 Had O'Rorke been with a brother 
 Templar, he would have at once burst into 
 "The Rising Barrister;" but, being a 
 proficient in adapting himself to his com- 
 pany, he instead, half sung, half chanted, 
 the following fragments : 
 
 " Who leads us with a gentle hand 
 Thither, thither, 
 Into the Silent Land ? 
 
 " Into the Silent Land ! 
 To you, ye boundless regions 
 Of all perfections ! Tender morning visions 
 Of beauteous souls ! '' 
 
 The last coil of the rope was unwound, 
 and staying his hand, he looked at the fair 
 pilot. She was gazing afar with wistful 
 intentness into the "boundless regions." 
 
 The cessation of sound recalled her. 
 
 " I could wish you had another five 
 hundred feet to unwind, if the song must 
 conclude with the task," she said, with a 
 smile that united the wistfulness of her
 
 72 . The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 past mood with the lightsomeness of her 
 present. 
 
 " The concert-hall is of too trying di- 
 mensions," said O'Rorke, laughing, as 
 leaning his arms on the edge of the car, 
 he looked down on the straight, motion- 
 less guide-rope. 
 
 The Serena had now yielded herself to a 
 current, that the compass indicated to be an 
 easterly one. " We must try to find a north- 
 erly current in a little while," said Gytha, 
 glancing at the chronometer. Fifteen 
 minutes had elapsed since they started. 
 
 His eyes bent on the ocean of sunlit 
 billows, that erewhile so swiftly rolling, 
 had appeared suddenly becalmed from the 
 moment the Serena changed her course. 
 O'Rorke reflected on the strange change 
 of circumstances that had befallen him. 
 But a few hours before, he had been 
 dozing in a close, little cabin ; and now 
 into what empyrean magnificence was he 
 exalted !
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 73 
 
 " What an atom one feels," thought he, 
 " in such boundless immensity. It is like 
 contemplating Eternity staggering, over- 
 whelming ! " Then, looking down on his 
 fair companion, he said, " How motionless 
 the clouds appear; now there's no visible 
 sign of the wind, it is almost impossible to 
 believe that there is any. The Serena 
 seems sailing as miraculously as the 
 ship in Coleridge's legend. Fancy an 
 aerial Ancient Mariner; one doomed to 
 drift on, and on, over this boundless 
 ocean, from the east to the west, from the 
 north to the south ; ever listening to never- 
 broken silence; ever watching for, but 
 never sighting any shape or sign of life. 
 
 ' Alone, alone, all, all, alone, 
 Alone on a wide, wide sea.' " 
 
 " No, I won't try to fancy anything so 
 morbid! " said Miss Keppel, smiling, and 
 looking up at the speaker with eyes no 
 longer shadowed with serious thought,
 
 74 The Witch oj Atlas. 
 
 but brilliant with exuberant vitality. 
 " Doubtless, they so shone," thought 
 O'Rorke, "when last night she 
 
 ' Could not chain 
 
 Her spirit ; but sailed forth under the light 
 Of shooting stars.' " 
 
 " I shall be afraid to mount higher," 
 she went on, " since you are so morbidly 
 inclined at this altitude. I shall rather 
 be trying for a favourable current below." 
 
 " That my dense mind may find its 
 equilibrium," he rejoined; "but, seriously, 
 I hope you won't think of descending ; 
 my whole being is rejoicing in the white 
 splendour beneath the blue sublimity 
 above us. How I should like to behold 
 this celestial world in all its different 
 aspects when sunset and sunrise are 
 transfiguring ' these air-born shapes.' 
 When the moon is on high, flooding all 
 space with her divine radiance; or when 
 the stars are shining and the red meteors 
 shooting which you probably beheld last 
 night."
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 75 
 
 " Not until the Serena carried me above 
 the cloud-layer, when I was struck by the 
 great number and intense brilliancy of the 
 stars, and while I was watching, two 
 meteors fell simultaneously in parallel 
 
 courses." 
 
 " You should have availed yourself of 
 the opportunity to descend ' In a star- 
 parachute,' as Blanchard wished he could." 
 
 " Did he ever express such a fanciful 
 wish as that ? " she asked. 
 
 " I am speaking of Blanchard the 
 poet, not Blanchard the aeronaut," he 
 explained, 
 
 " I cannot say I am as well ac- 
 quainted with the poetry of the one as I 
 am with the exploits of the other," she 
 said. " It is very seldom poets make 
 ballooning their theme. I must get his 
 works. In which poem does that scien- 
 tific conceit occur ?" 
 
 " A fancy piece, 'Leisure and Love.' 
 But you must not expect him to treat of 
 aerostation. Still I think you would
 
 76 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 admire some of his delicate rhapsodies 
 on clouds. He was a Yarmouth man, you 
 know ; and a friend of mine told me he 
 Land Ho ! " he broke off. 
 
 Springing to her feet, she looked 
 eagerly with him overboard, and through 
 a tunnel-like opening in the cloud, caught 
 a glimpse of green fields. The next 
 moment the clouds commingling, destroyed 
 the fairy vista. 
 
 " I shall be on the alert for that cloud 
 to wink again. Ah ! your posy ! " he 
 exclaimed. 
 
 In leaning over the side of the car, 
 her knot of chrysanthemums had become 
 loosened and had fallen overboard. 
 
 " They are all eagerness to return to 
 their mother-earth," observed O'Rorke, 
 watching the scattered and falling 
 flowers ; " but no they hang back, they 
 parley together. * Let us tarry here ! ' 
 say they, ' earth hath not sunshine so 
 bright, or dew so sweet ! '
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 77 
 
 " Indeed, they are not hanging back ! " 
 said Gytha, smiling, " It is an optical 
 illusion on your part." 
 
 " Ah, they have vanished ! " exclaimed 
 O'Rorke, as the flowers drowned them- 
 selves in the cloud. 
 
 " And we have risen thirty -five feet, 
 in consequence of their desertion," she 
 announced, comparing the barometers. 
 
 " Never ! " he exclaimed, incredulously, 
 " I had no idea we were so delicately 
 counterpoised ! You should carry dewy 
 flowers for ballast, instead of arid 
 sand." 
 
 " I think it is time to discharge some of 
 the * arid sand,' and mount in search of 
 Boreas," she said, with a light smile, 
 thrusting her hand into a ballast-bag. 
 On her discharging the handful of sand 
 the balloon reassumed a vertical course. 
 
 Alternately consulting the compass and 
 barometer, she continued to throw out 
 ballast, until the former indicated that the
 
 ;3 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 Serena had penetrated into a north-east 
 current, and the latter, that she had 
 reached an altitude of eight thousand four 
 hundred feet. 
 
 The clouds could now be seen moving 
 far below in a transverse direction 
 moving in refulgent beauty and dreamy 
 silence. 
 
 " Certainly, aerial travelling is su- 
 premely charming ! " O'Rorke observed. 
 
 " Yes ; and it is a pity such a prejudice 
 exists against it. It cannot be so perilous 
 as is generally supposed, for it is computed 
 that out of ten thousand ascents, only 
 fifteen lives have been lost." 
 
 " At that rate, it cannot be so hazardous 
 as some other modes of locomotion. I 
 presume your adventures have been, on the 
 whole, fairly free from danger." 
 
 " The greatest danger that ever 
 threatened me was when I was with my 
 father, nearly eight years since. I re- 
 member it was on my fourteenth birthday.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 79 
 
 During the ascent, we met with a slight 
 fall of snow : later on, the rarefaction of 
 the air caused a dilation, and when my 
 father attempted to open the valve, he 
 found it would not act. It was ice-sealed. 
 We had no sooner made the discovery, 
 than we heard reports like the discharge of 
 a pistol. I saw in a moment by my father's 
 face that something was going wrong. 
 On my asking him what caused the sounds, 
 he told me he feared the netting was 
 giving way. He had scarcely spoken 
 when there was quite a volley of reports. 
 On looking up into the envelope we saw 
 what had happened. The network had 
 broken at the top, and the balloon was 
 pushing its way up through the widening 
 rent. It was evident it would soon escape 
 altogether, leaving us to be dashed to the 
 earth, five thousand feet below." 
 
 " What a desperate situation ! But I 
 interrupt." 
 
 " It was desperate ! Death seemed
 
 8o The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 inevitable. My dear father made a last 
 effort to open tlie valve. But it remained 
 immovable ; so, giving up the attempt, he 
 said there was one chance of escape for 
 me. He would secure me to the valve- 
 rope, so that when the envelope freed 
 itself, it would bear me with it ; and raising 
 me to his shoulder, he tied the rope 
 which was fortunately a long one around 
 me. 
 
 " I shall never forget the agony of 
 hanging there, listening to those ominous 
 reports watching the distance slowly 
 increase between my father and myself 
 waiting for that terrible parting ! I was 
 turning giddy with the thought of seeing 
 him precipitated into space, when I was 
 violently jerked. I thought the awful 
 moment had come. But he cried out, 
 4 The ice has broken ! The valve is 
 open ! ' Instantly we began to descend. 
 Springing up into the hoop, my father 
 released me, and let the valve close, as we
 
 The Witch of Atlas. Si 
 
 were descending with too great rapidity. 
 The danger of the balloon escaping was 
 now greater than ever ; but in two 
 minutes we were safe on a grassy hill- 
 slope." 
 
 " That was a narrow escape ! You 
 must have found it difficult to realize your 
 safety ! " said O'Rorke, who had been 
 listening to her with the greatest interest. 
 Then looking up at the shapely sphere, he 
 asked, " Is this the balloon that caused 
 you such an agony of fear ? " 
 
 " Oh, no ; the Serena is only four years 
 old. That was the Lilian, she was de- 
 stroyed by fire three years after. The barn 
 in which she was kept was found one 
 morning burnt to the ground. Our regret 
 over the Lilian was, however, quickly 
 followed by horror at the discovery that 
 Thrupp was buried under the ruins. He 
 lived in a cottage near, and seeing the fire 
 had made an attempt to rescue the balloon. 
 He was still living, but fearfully burnt. 
 
 G
 
 82 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 The doctors gave no hope of saving his 
 life, for the top of his head was completely 
 charred. But one of them, knowing 
 there was a French surgeon then in 
 London who had made himself famous by 
 his successful cranial operations, invited 
 him to a consultation. He came, expressed 
 his belief that recovery was possible, and 
 performed an operation that was considered 
 a miracle of surgical skill. He removed 
 the entire cranium, and then protected the 
 brain with an artificial covering, until a 
 membrane formed over it." 
 
 " But surely the man's reason was not 
 preserved ? " 
 
 " Yes, I am thankful to say he lost none 
 of his faculties. Poor Thrupp ! It was 
 a shock to him at first to know that he 
 had lost his skull; but he soon became 
 rather proud, than otherwise, of the fact. 
 And certainly M. d'Arminges was proud 
 of the cure. He said " 
 
 "D'Arminges? Why, he is my bro-
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 83 
 
 ther-in-law ! And I have been think- 
 ing how much he would have liked to 
 have the case come under his eye and 
 hand ! " 
 
 "Your brother-in-law! Oh, I am 
 pleased ! My father and he used to 
 correspond, and since then I have often 
 wished I could hear of him, especially 
 since Paris has been besieged. Is he still 
 there ? " 
 
 " Yes, my sister tried hard to prevail 
 on him to leave it. But he would not 
 hear of that when it was probable he 
 would be so much needed there. Then, 
 of course, she wished to remain with him, 
 and it was only out of consideration for 
 their little boy's safety that she was at 
 length induced to go to Mrs. Cumberland, 
 a cousin of ours, in London. In a letter 
 Fanny, my sister, received from him a 
 few days before I left, he spid the number 
 of wounded was terribly on the increase. 
 I fear, though, it will be long before she 
 G 2
 
 84 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 hears from him again, unless he avail 
 himself of the aerial posts. That was a 
 bold venture of Duruof's. How enraged 
 the Prussians must have been when he 
 soared over their heads, and sent down 
 his cartes de visite." 
 
 " They must indeed. I was so amused 
 when I read the account," she said, her 
 sparkling eyes showing her sympathy with 
 the venturesome Frenchman. " Doubtless 
 M. d'Arminges will take advantage of 
 that resource. Your sister must be very 
 
 anxious." 
 
 " Extremely. I saw in yesterday's 
 paper the investment was completed, and 
 who knows when that ' iron girdle ' will 
 be broken ? There is no saying to what 
 extremity the siege may be pushed. It 
 was most unfortunate that Jules Favre's 
 interview with Bismarck ended so unsatis- 
 factorily." 
 
 " I must open the valve for a moment," 
 she said, rising. " The gas is dilating.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 85 
 
 And besides, I think it is time we de- 
 scended below the clouds, so that we may 
 find out our whereabouts. Jumping up, 
 O'Rorke offered to pull the rope for her. 
 Declining his offer, she told him to look 
 up into the envelope, and he would see 
 two crescents of light appear. So peer- 
 ing up into the silken, semi- dark dome, 
 he waited for the valve-lids to open. 
 
 Half a minute passed, and yet no light 
 gleamed. 
 
 " It will not act ! " 
 
 The alarming exclamation had scarcely 
 left her lips, when O'Rorke's hands 
 grasped the rope, just above hers, on 
 which the blue veins were vividly de- 
 nned, by reason of her tight grip. 
 
 " May I try ? " he asked, looking 
 anxiously at her blanched, upturned 
 face. 
 
 " Oh, yes 1 ' ' she eagerly replied, and 
 waited in watchful suspense while he 
 applied his strength cautiously.
 
 86 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 But no yielding of the rope, no glimmer- 
 ing of light marked his efforts. In a few 
 moments impatience replaced caution, and 
 he exerted his whole strength on the 
 stubborn rope. Suddenly he found him- 
 self on his knees. The rope had broken 
 midway ! Half was jerked down into the 
 car, the other half swung to and fro, far 
 up in the globe. 
 
 Speechless with consternation, he looked 
 up into her face. But she did not meet 
 his look, her dismayed eyes were intent 
 on the hanging rope. 
 
 " Good Heavens ! what have I done ? " 
 
 " Do not blame yourself," said Gytha, 
 " the rope was of no use since it would not 
 make the valve act. What can be amiss 
 with it ? " she added, looking up at the dark 
 metallic circle. " I wish we had discovered 
 it was unmanageable before we mounted 
 above the clouds. There are none here to 
 cause a condensation." She looked up 
 apprehensively at the balloon. It was
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 87 
 
 dilating into a shape that warned her how 
 great was their peril. 
 
 " Is there nothing I can do ? Are there 
 no means by which we could sink into the 
 clouds?" he said, looking down on the 
 cloudy haven where they would be. 
 
 " The only thing is to make incisions. 
 It is a dangerous expedient ; but unless 
 the gas finds some vent it will burst the 
 balloon," she said, with alarm in her 
 rapid tone and quick gesture, as she 
 took up a knife and thrust it into her 
 companion's hand. 
 
 Swinging himself up into the hoop, 
 O'Rorke raised his outstretched arm to 
 make an incision ; but a loud hissing noise 
 stayed his hand. 
 
 The gas had made a vent for itself, in 
 the upper portion of the balloon, which 
 at once began to collapse, and consequently 
 to descend, with a rapidity that told them 
 how great was the outrush of gas. 
 
 Springing down from the hoop, O'Rorke
 
 88 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 joined in Gytha's desperate efforts to 
 lighten the car with all possible dispatch. 
 
 "Cut the grapnel-rope ! " she directed, 
 as she hastily unhung the ballast-bags. 
 
 Still the velocity of their downfall 
 seemed in nowise moderated. 
 
 Glancing at the barometer, Gytha saw 
 they were now four thousand seven 
 hundred feet distant from the earth. At 
 the same moment the Serena plunged into 
 the clouds, and, owing to their condensing 
 influence, her precipitant descent was 
 sensibly augmented. 
 
 " Throw out anything everything ! " 
 she said, suiting her action to her 
 order. 
 
 Down, down whirled the balloon through 
 the gloomy region of cloud a very Valley 
 of the Shadow of Death. And now a 
 blurred mass of green seemed to be rush- 
 ing up to meet the travellers, and hasten 
 the inevitable collision. 
 
 Having thrown out every movable
 
 The Witch of Atlas, 89 
 
 article of weight, Gytlia and O'Rorke 
 stood mute and motionless, their eyes 
 tensely fixed on verdant gardens, about 
 which people were wildly rushing. 
 Suddenly Gytha's white lips parted to 
 give vent to a sharp cry, as a dark leaping 
 form crossed her vision, and with a light- 
 ning flash of comprehension she knew that, 
 to diminish her danger, her companion 
 had resigned his chance of escape.
 
 90 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 " Death rides on every passing breeze, 
 
 He lurks in every flower ; 
 Each season has its own disease, 
 Its peril every hour ! " 
 
 Heber. 
 
 THE mental shock was almost immedi- 
 ately followed by a bodily one ; the car 
 striking the ground with great force threw 
 Gytha headlong out, close by a pile of 
 stripped hop-poles. For half a minute 
 she lay prone ; men, women, and children 
 crowding round her, agape with awe. 
 Before any one of them had summoned up 
 courage to do aught but gape, Gytha had 
 staggered to her feet. With dazed eyes 
 she looked around at the strange faces of 
 the surrounding crowd, that was rapidly
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 91 
 
 increasing, to the diminution of a ring of 
 people a few rods off. 
 
 " A good job she ain't killed too!" 
 said one of these fresh arrivals, a brawny 
 man, with a bill-hook in his hand. As 
 the words fell on Gytha's ear, her eyes, 
 quickening into alarmed comprehension, 
 went straight to the distant ring, and she 
 started forward ; the crowd making way 
 for her with one accord. Followed by a 
 large number, she hastened with stumbling 
 precipitancy towards the distant knot of 
 spectators spectators of what ? 
 
 The next minute, breathless and pant- 
 ing, she had forced her way through the 
 ring of spectators, and, as her straining 
 eyes fell on a bloodstained, upturned face, 
 a long and bitter wail broke from her lips. 
 
 " Is he killed ? " she gasped, throwing 
 herself on her knees beside the prostrate 
 figure, opposite a gentleman, or rather yeo- 
 man, who was doing his best to ascertain 
 if any of O'Rorke's bones were broken.
 
 92 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 " No, no ! Don't you hear him breath- 
 ing ? " he said, in a subdued voice. 
 
 Yes, in truth, she could hear him now 
 breathing so heavily that her fears told her 
 he was dying. 
 
 " Let me," she said hastily, as the 
 yeoman attempted with his huge fingers to 
 unfasten the dainty necktie. While her 
 trembling hands sought to accomplish the 
 task, the yeoman raised the closed eyelids 
 of the injured man, and critically watched 
 the fixed pupils of the eyes that seemed to 
 her already glazing in death. 
 
 " All the symptoms of compression," 
 muttered the yeoman, as he closed the 
 rigid eyes. 
 
 " Can you do nothing for him are 
 you a doctor ? " she asked, in a tone of 
 sharp urgency. 
 
 " No ; though I have some knowledge 
 of surgery. But I have sent for one. 
 As far as I can ascertain there are no
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 93 
 
 broken bones, so we will not delay his 
 removal to the house." 
 
 And he gave sundry directions to 
 certain of the men standing by. While 
 Gytha looked down on the set face, her 
 eyes reflected a fearful doubt as to whether 
 vital expression had not vanished for ever. 
 
 The next minute there was a slight 
 commotion among the bystanders, occa- 
 sioned by the arrival of a hop-bin, that had 
 undergone a hasty adaptation to serve as a 
 stretcher. 
 
 Rising to her feet, Gytha anxiously 
 watched the removal of the death-like 
 figure. 
 
 Four stout labourers moved forward 
 with their burden, whilst their master 
 turned to Gytha and offered his arm, 
 saying, " The house is some distance off; 
 I hope you feel equal to walking it." 
 
 " Thank you, yes ; I do not need assist- 
 ance," she said, and her words were con-
 
 94 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 firmed by her steady gait, as they followed 
 the tramping bin-bearers. 
 
 On the way they passed the crowd 
 pressing round the heap of silk and net- 
 work. Eyeing, fingering, smelling never 
 was object of wonder more curiously in- 
 vestigated. 
 
 " Here, you idlers ! Your fingers would 
 be better employed picking the bines, 
 than that stuff ! Back to the bins with 
 you, one and all," shouted the yeoman. 
 And there was an immediate, albeit re- 
 luctant, movement to obey his orders. 
 
 Modifying his stentorian voice, he 
 turned and questioned the balloon-wrecked 
 stranger at his side, as to the cause of the 
 accident. 
 
 "I must have a look at that piece of 
 machinery, "he said, on hearing it was owing 
 to the valve's refractoriness. " I wonder 
 your companion did not make sure that 
 his balloon's apparatus was in perfect 
 working order, before he ventured to take
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 95 
 
 you with him. Having endangered your 
 life, he could not do less than take the leap, 
 ugly as it was ! " 
 
 "But Mr. O'Rorkewas not responsible. 
 It is my balloon ; and I have never before 
 known the valve to be out of order," she 
 answered. 
 
 " Your balloon ! " he exclaimed, astonish- 
 ment augmenting his habitual force of 
 tone, " and under your sole management ? " 
 he questioned, with a knitting of his 
 brows that said as plainly as words, 
 " Then no wonder things went wrong." 
 
 "I am thoroughly experienced in aero- 
 nautics," she replied, somewhat shortly ; 
 " but when I ascended last night, it was 
 only with " 
 
 " What, have you been up since last 
 night ? " he interrupted, startled out of all 
 ceremony. 
 
 She flushed deeply at his abrupt question, 
 and hastened to speak of the accident of 
 the previous night, her enforced descent
 
 96 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 into the North Sea, and timely rescue by 
 Mr. O'Rorke. 
 
 " So he was unknown to you twelve 
 hours ago," he commented. " Do you 
 know his address in case we should have 
 to telegraph to his people ? He is not 
 married, I suppose, or he would have set 
 more value on his life ! " 
 
 " Oh, no ! at least, I think not. He has 
 a sister, but I do not know her address. 
 And he mentioned an uncle, but all I know 
 of him is that he bears the same name, and 
 lives in Dublin." 
 
 " That's not very definite. Did he 
 happen to mention his business or pro- 
 fession ? " 
 
 " Yes, he told me he was a law student 
 of the Inner Temple." 
 
 " Then we can apply there for his 
 uncle's address, in case of emergency." 
 
 Returning to the point at which he had 
 interrupted her, she told him how, on 
 reaching Yarmouth, O'Rorke had under-
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 97 
 
 taken the removal of the Serena to the 
 gas-works; thus it was that she had 
 omitted to examine the valve. 
 
 " I shall never forgive myself the 
 neglect," she concluded, her eyes intent 
 on the extemporized stretcher. 
 
 Through sylvan alleys of bine-entwined 
 poles, bending beneath the weight of 
 thick golden clusters, they followed the 
 four steadily-plodding labourers. Once 
 their master bade them halt ; but neither 
 he nor Gytha could see any change in the 
 aspect of the pallid face. 
 
 At last they emerged from the pleasant, 
 mellow hop-gardens into sloping meadow- 
 land, on which the September sunshine lay 
 broad and fair. Down in the vale below, 
 on their left, there flowed in quiet beauty 
 a glancing rivulet; while high on their 
 right, an extensive hanger displayed its 
 luxuriant autumn-tinted leafage. Beneath 
 the shadow of its wing there nestled a 
 house of cottage-like picturesqueness.
 
 98 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 The only approach to it from below was 
 a bridle-way ; and up this the men slowly 
 bore their burden. The yeoman now 
 started on in advance of them, in order to 
 open a gate that gave admittance to the 
 hedge-enclosed garden. A gravel path 
 wound from thence to the whitened thres- 
 hold, on which was standing a tall, upright 
 old lady, evidently on the alert for their 
 arrival. 
 
 Her vigilant eyes betokening the 
 keenest alarm, she hastened down the 
 path. 
 
 " Is it all ready, mother ? " asked the 
 yeoman. 
 
 " Yea, Mark, the corner bedroom," she 
 answered, in a voice that, though mel- 
 lowed with age, was as decisive as his own. 
 " Hath he recovered consciousness ? " 
 
 Answering her in the negative, he 
 motioned her towards Gytha, and preceded 
 the men into the house. 
 
 " This is a lamentable ending to thy
 
 T/ie Witch of Alias. 99 
 
 pleasuring, madam," she said, with a 
 somewhat distant air. 
 
 "It is terrible torturing ! " Grytha 
 answered excitedly. 
 
 " Nay, madam ; be comforted. Possibly 
 he is but stunned. Doctor Cobbold will, I 
 hope, be here before long." And thus 
 speaking she conducted her into the main 
 passage, from which there branched 
 several others. Down one of these the 
 men were moving with due wariness, there 
 being but bare passing-room for the bin. 
 
 " Mother, we shall want you here ! " 
 called Mark, who was lending a guiding 
 hand. 
 
 " Pray, enter and rest thyself, madam ; 
 I will return immediately," said the old 
 lady, whose- dress, as well as speech, 
 denoted her to be a Quakeress. Leaving 
 the door ajar, she hastened to render 
 assistance to the injured man. 
 
 In a few minutes a short, thick-set 
 gentleman, somewhat advanced in years, 
 H 2
 
 ioo The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 arrived at the house, and was immediately 
 conducted by a neat maid-servant down 
 the narrow passage, and up the three 
 steps that led to the corner bedroom. 
 
 After a long interval, he reappeared, 
 accompanied by the mistress of the house- 
 hold. 
 
 " And now, friend Cobbold, wilt thou 
 step in and speak to this venturesome 
 girl?" she said, leading the way to the 
 door she had left ajar. 
 
 Before he could make reply, there was 
 a hasty movement in the room ; the door 
 was quickly opened, and there stood, not 
 the modified tight-rope dancer of the 
 doctor's imagination, but a pale, anxious- 
 looking young gentlewoman, as sober in 
 her attire as her Quakeress hostess. 
 
 " What a splendid skeleton she would 
 make ! She is symmetry itself ! " he 
 thought. 
 
 " A bow of sleek devotion 
 Engendering in his back."
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 101 
 
 A bow that was, however, startled out 
 of a graceful consummation by the im- 
 petuous outburst of Gytha, 
 
 " Will he live ? Does he live ? " 
 
 " He does live. But as yet, madam. I 
 cannot assert he -will live," he answered 
 sententiously. 
 
 " Is he conscious ? " 
 
 " Conscious, no ! We must not expect 
 consciousness to return so quickly after 
 so violent a concussion." 
 
 " Tell me, what is it his head ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " Yes, my dear madam, I grieve to say 
 my examination leads me to conclude he 
 has sustained fracture of the skull. I 
 have telegraphed to Sir Vincent Hunt, 
 requesting his attendance." 
 
 Her face blanched. 
 
 " Will he die ? " was the question that 
 came faltering from herparched, white lips. 
 
 " No, no ! Brain fever is the worst we 
 need fear. Pray sit down and try to be
 
 102 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 calm, madam. "We must be glad his case 
 admits of hope. Eh, Mrs. Orde ? " he 
 added, turning to the old lady, who was 
 busy at a table on which untouched refresh- 
 ments were spread. 
 
 "Truly, friend Cobbold, glad and 
 thankful I am," she said, returning with 
 a cup of tea, which she placed on a small 
 table at Gytha's side. " Do drink this, 
 madam, it will steady the nerves." 
 
 " Quite right, Mrs. Orde. And then a 
 spell of sleep is what she needs." 
 
 "Exactly, doctor." Then turning her 
 steady eyes on her guest, she said, " I 
 have had a bedroom prepared for thee, 
 for I have heard from my son, thou hast 
 been turning night into day." 
 
 " You are very good, Mrs. Orde, to be 
 so considerate ; but I could not rest until I 
 have heard the result of the consultation. 
 How soon can Sir Vincent arrive?" she 
 asked, turning to Dr. Cobbold. 
 
 " Here is your answer, if I mistake not,"
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 103 
 
 he said, as, throwing open the window, 
 he beckoned to a telegraph-boy, who was 
 making his way to the front door. 
 
 " c Send conveyance to meet the four- 
 fifty train,' ' read the doctor aloud. 
 " And now," glancing at his watch, " it is 
 close upon three." 
 
 Gytha started from her seat, and began 
 pacing the room. 
 
 " Now, my dear madam, you must not 
 excite yourself. Let me prevail on you 
 to control your impatience, and try to get 
 a little rest on that sofa. I must return 
 to my patient now." 
 
 " Thou must be much shaken, madam. 
 It would be well to rest thy body, if thou 
 canst not thy mind," said Mrs. Orde, when 
 the doctor had left the room, and Gytha, 
 heedless of his injunction, continued her 
 restless pacing, her troubled eyes gazing 
 straight before her. 
 
 " Ask me to do anything but rest. 
 That is impossible ! " The pained accent
 
 iO4 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 of her voice caused the good Quakeress 
 to say to herself, " Verily the girl's con- 
 science sorely reproves her ; " and as she 
 watched her agitated guest, her hard face 
 took a kindlier, or rather, a less censorious 
 expression than it had borne hitherto. 
 
 "I am going into the village to seek 
 the service of a worthy woman, who is 
 experienced in tending the sick. Wilt 
 thou come with me ? " she asked. 
 
 G-ytha eagerly accepted her proposal. 
 And in a few minutes they started on the 
 errand.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 105 
 
 CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 " Shadows are trailing, 
 My heart is. bewailing 
 And tolling within 
 
 Like a funeral bell." 
 
 Longfellow. 
 
 "A very bad case of compression of the 
 brain from bone. The cerebral injury 
 is serious, most serious. In fact, there 
 is danger of its fatally affecting his 
 reason." 
 
 As Sir Vincent Hunt phlegmatically 
 pronounced his verdict, he saw the 
 expectant look in Gytha's dark eyes 
 change to one of horrified fixity. 
 
 " His reason ! " she exclaimed dis- 
 tractedly. 
 , The cry of distress roused the commis-
 
 io6 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 seration of the two doctors. Doctor Cob- 
 bold, who appeared to be endowed with 
 more sympathy than Sir Vincent, hastened 
 to reassure her. 
 
 " But, my dear young lady, we are not 
 going to let that danger frighten us. No, 
 no ; we are going to see what an operation 
 will effect. And for my part, I am 
 sanguine respecting its result." 
 
 In a moment, to his satisfaction, Gytha's 
 eyes were turned eagerly on him . . The 
 next moment, to his chagrin, they reverted 
 to the clean-shaven face of his famous 
 colleague. 
 
 " An operation you think an operation 
 will save his reason ? " 
 
 "I hope it may be successful; but I 
 cannot say I anticipate further than the 
 preservation of life." 
 
 Discouraging as was his answer, the 
 hopeful eagerness did not disappear from 
 his listener's face ; but rather increased, as 
 she said hurriedly,
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 107 
 
 " Then M. d'Arminges he must see 
 him ! He will save his reason ! " 
 
 " M. d'Arminges, humph, the French 
 specialist," said the English one, thought- 
 fully. 
 
 "And Mr. O'Rorke's brother-in-law," 
 quickly added Gytha. 
 
 " Then we must consult him by all 
 means. There is no immediate necessity 
 for the operation, but consciousness will 
 remain suspended until it does take place. 
 I will communicate with him at once ; but 
 stay is not M. d'Arminges attached to the 
 Salptriere ? " 
 
 " He is," she answered promptly. 
 
 " And the Salpetriere is in Paris," he 
 said, with laconic significance. 
 
 " Paris ! Wheugh, then M. d'Armin- 
 ges is about as accessible as the man 
 in the moon," lamented Dr. Cobbold, with 
 genuine regret. The prospect of being 
 one in a consultation that included the 
 famous French surgeon had been highly 
 attractive to the ambitious little man.
 
 loS The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 " But lie is accessible ! " she said, with 
 animated decision. " I can fetch him in 
 my balloon. I must telegraph to Thrupp 
 to come down at once. He will be able 
 to repair the valve. In the meantime I 
 must get the envelope mended." 
 
 Three pairs of eyes focussed themselves 
 on her flushed, earnest face. 
 
 Sir Vincent was the first to speak. 
 
 " My dear girl ! you cannot consider 
 you forget the Prussian bullets. A pretty 
 target your balloon would make." 
 
 " I shall provide myself with plenty of 
 ballast, so as to be able to surmount that 
 danger." 
 
 " And what if you find yourself blown 
 out to sea, or into the enemy's country ? " 
 pursued the surgeon. 
 
 " I cannot let such bare contingencies 
 as those deter me," she said deci- 
 sively. 
 
 " Foolish, infatuated girl ! Thou 
 wouldst not surely again endanger the life
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 109 
 
 so mercifully spared to th.ee ? " sternly 
 questioned the old Friend, from where she 
 stood by the open cupboard, in which she 
 had been delving with hospitable intent, 
 when Gytha's proposal had arrested her 
 attention. 
 
 " Yes, preserved to me, through his 
 sacrifice. I owe my life to him," was the 
 low-toned reply. 
 
 " A debt you may pay, and he be none 
 the better off," said Sir Vincent. " You 
 had better remain here, safe on earth, and 
 let me do my best for him. Or if you 
 would like further advice " 
 
 " No, no," she interrupted, " I must 
 fetch M. d'Arrainges. I feel confident 
 that he can save him. He has saved life 
 and reason, when both were despaired of." 
 And she briefly related Thrupp's case to 
 him. 
 
 " I heard something of that case at the 
 time," he commented. " The medical 
 papers were full of it. He is, without
 
 no The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 doubt, a peerless operator, and it is 
 strangely unfortunate his skill cannot 
 benefit his own relative." 
 
 " But it shall ! I must and will make 
 the attempt. If I fail, if you do not soon 
 hear from me then perform the operation. 
 And heaven guide your hand ! " 
 
 The silence that followed her fervent 
 ejaculations was broken by the clink of 
 glass from the cupboard, that was again 
 engulphing the Quakeress's snowy cap 
 a clink that sounded most suggestive and 
 pleasant in Doctor Cobbold's puffy little 
 ears. Then, thinking it high time he 
 vocalized his presence, he turned and 
 addressed Gytha, 
 
 " But, my dear young lady, I under- 
 stood your aerostat was blown to 
 tatters." 
 
 " Oh, no ; it was only a rent, a tailor can 
 quickly mend it. Perhaps you can recom- 
 mend me one ? " 
 
 " Why, it so happens that I have a
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 1 1 1 
 
 journeyman tailor on my premises " he 
 paused suddenly, bit his lip, and cast 
 an involuntary glance at Sir Vincent's 
 perfectly- fashioned habiliments. " I em- 
 ployed him out of charity, the fellow 
 came harassing me for a job, so I asked 
 my housekeeper to give him some odds 
 and ends of household mending. His 
 handiwork suffices well enough for that, 
 and would, I have no doubt, answer your 
 requirements." 
 
 " Thank you. A few yards of firm 
 stitching is all I require." 
 
 " Then I will send round for him ; my 
 house is close by. Doubtless Mrs. Orde 
 will lend me her good Jonah's legs for the 
 purpose." 
 
 " Certainly, friend Cobbold," said the 
 Quakeress ; and, moving to a panel in the 
 wall, she raised it, disclosing a glimpse of a 
 kitchen, and directed a domestic to send in 
 Jonah. 
 
 In a minute a puny boy, neatly clad
 
 H2 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 in grey homespun, appeared before the 
 assembly. 
 
 " Jonah, look attentively at this gentle- 
 man, and attend to the directions he will 
 give thee." 
 
 Thus exhorted by his mistress, the lad 
 fixed his wandering gaze on the doctor's 
 full-blown physiognomy. 
 
 "Now, Jonah, my boy, where do I 
 live?" 
 
 *' Nigh by Murray's mills, sir, in the 
 house with the goggles." 
 
 " Goggles ! " repeated the doctor, sur- 
 prised in his turn. 
 
 "Yea, sir, the goggles, with water 
 running from them." 
 
 " Gargoyles, Jonah, gargoyles," said his 
 mistress, correcting him 
 
 " Bless me ! I've been told my house 
 possesses a commanding view ; but this is 
 the first time I've been told it possesses 
 an afflicted vision," and the little doctor 
 laughed until he was fain to wipe his own 
 watering orbs.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 113 
 
 " Well, my man, run as fast as you can 
 to tbe house with the ' goggles,' and say 
 the doctor requires Long John immediately 
 at shall I say here, madam, or the hop- 
 grounds ? " 
 
 " The hop-grounds. The tissue can 
 better be mended where it lies, and it will 
 save time for him to go there at once." 
 
 Gytha's quick tone caused a suspicion 
 to break on him, that she had been more 
 irritated than entertained. And turning 
 to Jonah, he hastily despatched him. 
 
 " And this Thrupp, Miss Kepple," began 
 the surgeon, putting in his pocket the 
 note-book in which he had been making 
 jottings, " he will, of course, accompany 
 you?" 
 
 " Yes, as far as Rouen. An old friend 
 of my father, himself an aeronaut, lives 
 there, and will, I am sure, facilitate my 
 ascent." 
 
 " In that case, Rouen is an advantageous 
 starting-station, else I should have advised 
 
 i
 
 ii4 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 your choosing one nearer Paris. But why 
 make the ascent alone ? Do you think the 
 man will hold back ? " 
 
 " No, Sir Vincent, quite the reverse ; but 
 there is no necessity whatever for the 
 risk being doubled. I am used to manage 
 alone." 
 
 " But you would probably find him of 
 great service when you get there." 
 
 " Paris is not a strange city to me ; I 
 have often been there with my father. 
 And descend where I will, I have never 
 yet missed respect. The comfort of 
 Thrupp's services would not compensate 
 the discomfort of knowing at what risk he 
 rendered them, for if he went with me he 
 would be obliged to remain in Paris until 
 the siege is over, as the Serena cannot 
 carry more than two." 
 
 "Well, well, I suppose you know best," 
 he said, relapsing into his neutral tone. 
 
 " But I shall need him to take charge 
 of her as far as Rouen. I must telegraph
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 115 
 
 to my aunt at otfce," she said, producing 
 a pocket-book and taking from thence a 
 telegram-form. 
 
 " May I give it in for you ? " he asked. 
 " I am bound for the station in a few 
 minutes. I have some cases in town that 
 I must attend to, but I will run down 
 again early to-morrow." 
 
 Thanking him, she hastily pencilled, 
 " G. Keppel, Mrs. Colborne, 
 
 Tenacres, Rutland Lodge, 
 
 Chilworth. Chelsea. 
 
 Safe, and with friends. Met with balloon 
 accident. Require Thrupp and reserve 
 instruments immediately. Will write. 
 Please send my cheque-book and travel- 
 ling-bag." 
 
 The sinking sun was pointing a fiery 
 ray, as a finger in scorn, through the 
 screening vine-foliage, at the torn, shape- 
 less groveller that, when at his zenith, 
 he had beheld boldly invading his airy 
 dominions. The ray was presently inter- 
 i 2
 
 1 1 6 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 cepted and dazzlingly reflected, by the 
 gigantic brazen thimble encompassing the 
 crown of a battered chimney-pot hat 
 covering the head of a moody, jaundiced- 
 looking individual, nearly buried beneath 
 the silken tissue on which he was plying 
 his needle. 
 
 Occasionally the fellow would lift his 
 heavy eyes to cast a glance of sluggish 
 interest, across the undulating expanse of 
 material, at the earnest face of his new 
 employer standing on the other side, intent 
 on cutting out various sized patches of oil- 
 skin, which she severally handed to the 
 yeoman standing near, who forthwith 
 applied them to the impaired silk. 
 
 After awhile, from under his red eyelids, 
 the tailor saw the huge yeoman, together 
 with his companion, come slowly round 
 towards him. 
 
 " I hope the light will outlast your task, 
 John," said a deep voice, as the herculean 
 figure halted.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 1 1 7 
 
 " Can't say. The stuff's tough enough, 
 I can tell yer thai. It's turned the points 
 o' three dratted needles," he grumbled, 
 never lifting his eyes. 
 
 " Yes, it must be very tiresome. It 
 is the varnish that has so hardened the 
 silk," said Grytha, noting with dismay the 
 lengthy rent that the plodding needle 
 must yet traverse. " But as I told 
 you, you shall be well paid for your 
 trouble," she added, desirous of inciting 
 the dull-browed malcontent to some 
 dexterity. 
 
 "Glad to hear it," he said stolidly. 
 " The mean old cove I've been jobbin' for 
 ain't too ready to fork out his tin. 'E 
 were for dockin' me o' my drop o j beer, 
 'cause I cut 'is coat-tails a shavin' too 
 short. But I soon let 'e see I weren't 
 agoin' to stand that. Talkin' o' beer, my 
 gullet's as parched as this 'ere stuff," he 
 added, raising his mumbling voice, in order 
 that his hint should be the better con-
 
 i r 8 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 veyed to the hop-grower, who was follow- 
 ing Gytha to where she now stood bending 
 over a small heap of recovered, but more 
 or less injured, instruments. 
 
 " I'm going down to the village, and will 
 send you up a tankard," said Mark, look- 
 ing back over his shoulder. 
 
 " I fear they are all useless," he re- 
 marked, subduing his voice to the delicate 
 ear he now addressed, as he looked down 
 regretfully on the broken thermometer 
 which Gytha held in her hand. 
 
 " Fortunately I have a reserve set at 
 home, that I have desired Thrupp to bring 
 with him," she said, putting down the 
 ivory wreck, and taking up a bruised 
 speaking-trumpet. 
 
 " That is indeed fortunate, for I doubt 
 if any shop in Chilworth could supply 
 you with instruments of that rare make. 
 That reminds me I must be off for the 
 rope and varnish. But in the meantime 
 you will get tired standing about."
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 1 1 9 
 
 ''Then I can rest here," she said, 
 pausing by a pile of stripped hop-poles. 
 
 Quick as thought, he spread thereon an 
 overlooked poke. 
 
 " That was a convenient oversight," he 
 said, looking round on her with a smile. 
 To his wonder, she met his glance with 
 a look of painful abstraction. She was 
 thinking of how O'Rorke had draped the 
 fish-crate. 
 
 The expression lingered long on her 
 face, as she sat gazing with pondering 
 fixity at the thimble-crowned hat in the 
 distance. 
 
 Now and then a bird twittered close 
 by her, or a white moth sped by on the 
 soft evening air. Purple clouds gathered 
 in the west, and slowly shadowed the 
 delicate apple-green stretches of sky ; and, 
 as slowly, the light passed from field and 
 meadow. Twilight gradually possessed 
 the land, deepening away to the horizontal 
 band of dark blue mistiness, where but a
 
 120 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 few moments since a belt of pines had 
 stood blackly traced against the now 
 vanished rose-radiance. 
 
 When Mark Orde returned, bearing in one 
 muscular hand a jar labled Linseed Oil 
 Varnish, and in the other a coiled pack of 
 rope, he found Gytha standing near the 
 balloon in earnest discussion with an 
 undersized, odd-looking character, whom 
 no one could look at and fail to be struck 
 with his resemblance to an otter. Reced- 
 ing forehead, small bright eyes, sharp 
 prominent nose, each feature instinct with 
 alertness, and a slender little body, that 
 seemed to wriggle with disputative agita- 
 tion as he talked, all combined to render 
 the resemblance striking and unique. Orde 
 soon learned from Gytha that her eager, 
 little interlocutor, who evidently ill-brooked 
 his interruption, was no other than 
 Thrupp. 
 
 " I cannot convince him of the advis-
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 1 2 1 
 
 ability of his remaining in Rouen," she 
 added. 
 
 " I's be suner convinced ane ee * is 
 better nor twa," he asserted, in a shrill 
 treble. " I wad rather gang to Paris wi* 
 ye, an I hae to eat horse and donkey to 
 my deeing day. I am a' asteer to wauff 
 my cap to the German chaps ! " And in 
 the excitement of the anticipation, he 
 plucked off and waved aloft his Scotch cap, 
 leaving to view a brown silk skull-cap. 
 
 " But, Thrupp, I have been counting on 
 you to relieve me of the Serena when M. 
 d'Arminges and I come out of Paris, and 
 if you are left behind there, I shall be 
 obliged to trust her to strangers, and who 
 can say how roughly she may be treated." 
 
 She did well to represent the case in this 
 light, since he held the welfare of the 
 Serena second only to her own. 
 
 " Weel, weel, I maun bide in Rouen," he 
 
 1 Scot., eye.
 
 122 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 said resignedly; " but I's hae nae peace of 
 mind 'till I set een on ye agin," he added 
 in an undertone, as he darted off to the 
 alamort tailor, and in less than a minute 
 was seated in his stead, stitching away 
 with an aptitude that showed needle and 
 thimble were no strangers to his fingers. 
 
 Having vented some of his resentment 
 by cuffing the pot-boy, who, forgetful 
 of his vocation, had been hanging round 
 the balloon, the displaced journeyman 
 shambled up to his employer, and whined 
 a hope that he was not " agoin' to be done 
 out o' his due ;" he had done his job all 
 but a few stitches, when " that imp " 
 snatched it out of his hand. 
 
 For answer Gytha handed him a half- 
 sovereign. He eyed the coin with a de- 
 cidedly brightened aspect, turned it over in 
 his palm, spat on it, and with a mumbled 
 " Thank'ee miss," he thrust it in his 
 pocket and went on his way, the same as 
 that taken by the pot-boy.
 
 T/ie Witch of Atlas. 123 
 
 Tlie hop-grower's face took a vexed 
 expression as he watched the retreating 
 figure. 
 
 " I was so glad to see Thrupp. It 
 seemed as though that man would never 
 finish his task," she said, regarding with 
 relief the busy stitcher. 
 
 " That little fellow certainly seems 
 worth two of him. Has he been able 
 to enlighten you at all respecting your 
 balloon's escape?" 
 
 " Yes, he has just been telling me that, 
 after he went back into the house, a strong 
 presentiment that something was going 
 wrong with the balloon urged him to re- 
 turn. On his way there he was alarmed 
 to see the Serena's light suddenly soar up 
 and disappear, and running to the spot of 
 ascent, he found Shootoo, the monkey, 
 dancing around the machinery, brandishing 
 a knife." 
 
 " That animal should be destroyed." 
 
 "Oh, I could not hear of that! My
 
 124 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 father used to be so amused to watch, his 
 tricks. I have agreed to Thrupp's request, 
 that he may be kept under restraint." 
 
 " And a very wise request. The brute 
 will be committing murder next. I feel 
 so vexed when I think how his devilry has 
 caused all this trouble," he said, looking 
 lugubriously away at the fading landscape. 
 
 "I am afraid Thrupp will not have 
 light enough to see what is wrong with 
 the valve," she said, as, presently turning 
 her head, she saw that he had risen, and 
 was stooping over the refractory machine. 
 
 " I gave directions before we started, 
 that a muster of lanterns should be 
 brought here as soon as the light failed," 
 he said. " And here they come ! " as he 
 caught sight of moving distant lights. 
 
 When, some while later, Gytha stood 
 near a lantern elevated on a pole, gazing 
 dejectedly away into the far- stretching, 
 deepening darkness, and listening to the 
 sough of distant trees, her last night's
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 1 2 5 
 
 sojourn on board the fishing-smack was 
 again brought vividly to her mind. 
 
 Whilst she recalled the pleasant voice 
 of her late companion, her reverie was 
 abruptly terminated by Mark Orde saying 
 something about returning to the house. 
 
 She was startled, and bitterly reminded 
 that O'Rorke was not by her side, but lying 
 helpless on the brink of insanity. 
 
 " There is no further need of you here," 
 he went on, " and it would be well to rest 
 all you can. It is half-past seven now, 
 so you have two hours' respite before 
 
 you." 
 
 He strove to speak cheerfully, but the 
 pallor of her face depressed him greatly. 
 
 "Yes, I will return to the house," she 
 said, with a weary look that prompted him 
 to make one more attempt to induce her 
 to give up the enterprise. 
 
 But when reaching the whitened thres- 
 hold, he stood aside for her to enter, his 
 downcast look affirmed both the failure of
 
 126 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 his attempt and the fixed character of 
 Gytha's resolve to go forth on her ven- 
 turotfs journey by land, sea and air, on 
 behalf of the man who twice had risked 
 his life to save her own.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 127 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 " All holy angels keep me in this hour ! 
 Spirit of her who bore me, look upon me ! " 
 
 Longfelloiv. 
 
 THROB. Throb. Throb. 
 
 It seemed to Gytha, as she sat in the 
 cabin of the packet, that the pulsating 
 machine so near her must be sharing in 
 the excitement, stirring her heart, and 
 co-operating with her in the work she had 
 determined to carry out. 
 
 Her giddy, overwrought brain craved 
 for the respite of sleep. Once she closed 
 her aching eyes, but "the balls like 
 pulses beat," refusing to be lid-pent. 
 Wearily they reopened and fell on the 
 hard-featured, expressionless woman, in- 
 defatigably crocheting, sitting opposite.
 
 128 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 Slowly but surely expanded the fantastic 
 doily ; no knot offered interruption. The 
 ivory crotchet-needle journeyed round its 
 circuit evenly as the hand of a clock. 
 Gytha watched its smooth, fascinating 
 progress, until the regular motion of the 
 little ivory wand seemed to soothe her 
 senses, and laid them under the charm of 
 slumber. 
 
 " We have reached Dieppe, ma'am," 
 were the words of the stewardess, aided 
 by a touch on the arm, that broke the 
 spell. 
 
 Gytha started to her feet. The inde- 
 fatigable crochet-worker had disappeared, 
 together with the pack of " poor, suffering 
 humanity" that had been making such 
 demands on the services of the stewardess. 
 Thanking the woman, she hastened up the 
 companion- stairs. Reaching the deck, she 
 found to her vexation that the rain was 
 falling heavily. Alas, for her ascent, 
 should it continue !
 
 The Witch q/ Atlas. 129 
 
 Thrupp was standing just outside the 
 hatchway, on the alert for her appear- 
 ance. 
 
 " Has it been raining long ? " she asked 
 of him. 
 
 " The best part o' the night, miss." 
 
 "And the wind?" 
 
 " It has been sou'-west, but it's turned 
 west noo." 
 
 She shivered as the rain beat sharply in 
 her face. 
 
 " But we maun look sharp, miss. It is 
 drenched ye will be an ye stan' here;" 
 and thus saying he began to elbow his 
 way through the jostling crowd. 
 
 After a brief period of confusion, she 
 was once again being carried swiftly along 
 the railway, watching the slant rain delug- 
 ing the fields, meadows and orchards, that 
 followed each other in endless succession. 
 Suddenly a beam of sunlight cheered her 
 despondent eyes, as they peered intently 
 through the rain-blurred window. 
 
 K
 
 130 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 She let down the sash, stretched out her 
 hand, and to her delight found that the 
 rain had ceased. 
 
 The pure, strong air seemed sweet with 
 earthy incense, and Gytha inhaled it with 
 all the gratefulness of a relieved mind and 
 reviving spirit, until the train swept into 
 the jaws of darkness. 
 
 When it emerged from the tunnel, no 
 glistening leafage of orchards, but the dull 
 walls of the station of Eouen met her eyes. 
 And there, posted on the platform near 
 the chief exit, stood the corpulent old 
 friend whom she had apprised by telegram 
 of her coming. Noting the spot where he 
 stood, (rytha quickly alighted and made 
 her way towards it, to find her friend still 
 firmly planted thereon, peering around in 
 every direction. Seeing her, his frowning 
 perplexity changed on the instant to smiling 
 delight, and he waddled eagerly forward to 
 meet her. 
 
 " Soyez le bieuvenu ! Dis is a la bonne
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 131 
 
 heure, ma petite" he welcomed, in a 
 muffled voice that came slowly from the 
 fat folds of his throat. "And la belle 
 Serene, vaire is she ? Ve must not let ze 
 train bear her avay." 
 
 " Ah ! Thrupp will see that does not 
 happen," she said, a smile at his kindly 
 anxiety playing on her lips. 
 
 " Ah ! ze good Trupp he is vid you 
 zen. Dat is bonne. Come zen, ma chere, 
 ze caleche vaits vidout." 
 
 In a few minutes she was seated in the 
 said caleche, near which stood a vehicle 
 of humble character, in readiness for the 
 balloon and car. 
 
 After waiting until the machine was 
 safely mounted thereon by Thrupp and 
 the driver, M. Grandpierre shook the reins 
 held in his chubby hands, to which gentle 
 signal the sleek bay mare promptly re- 
 sponded. 
 
 Gytha would fain have been silent as she 
 was borne swiftly through the old city, 
 K 2
 
 132 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 so full of memories; but the numerous 
 questions of her old friend respecting her 
 errand demanded a reply, so that by the 
 time her questioner turned his good Jeanne 
 into the scantily-wooded, but richly- 
 flowered grounds encircling a pretty, 
 slightly-built chateau, he was in full 
 possession of all the information he 
 desired, including an outline of Gytha's 
 adventures since leaving Chelsea. Gytha 
 drew a quick breath as she sighted 
 it. How happily had she and her 
 father sojourned within those selfsame 
 walls ! 
 
 Her heart swelled with unusual emotion, 
 when, a few minutes later, she was em- 
 braced by Madame Grandpierre, an infirm 
 old lady of most gentle presence. 
 
 " Ma chere, vat a morceau you do eat," 
 said M. Grandpierre, observing Gytha's 
 small appetite, after the trio had been 
 seated awhile at the daintily-appointed 
 breakfast-table. " Dis is sottise/ Out
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 133 
 
 zare, la Serene is of dejeune partaking, that 
 she collapse not, and in here you must of 
 dejeune partake, that you collapse not. 
 Now eat you zese truffles." 
 
 Smiling at his protest, Gytha proceeded 
 to obey his behest, notwithstanding that 
 the vivid recollection of the little breakfast 
 party of the previous morning had deprived 
 her of all desire to partake of food. 
 " Could it be only the previous morning 
 that she had sat with her hero at that 
 homely table at Yarmouth ? " she sadly 
 wondered, as she now sat at this elegant 
 board. 
 
 Her sombre reflections were interrupted 
 by her host's thick voice slowly articula- 
 ting, 
 
 "Hafois/ Yaire I in ze place of M. 
 d'Arminges, I vould velcome you as ze 
 angel of mercy. Grace a del ! I am not 
 in ze place of him, or any ozer pauvre 
 diable vid ze view of zeven jours de jeune 
 in ze veek ! "
 
 134 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 The vast capacity for food, which the 
 old gentleman was evincing, gave due 
 weight to his thanksgiving. 
 
 " It is terrible, my heart aches for 
 them," said Madame Grandpierre in her 
 sweet, low voice. 
 
 " Could I not take some sacks of flour 
 with me ? Would it be possible for me to 
 procure some without causing a delay ? " 
 and G-ytha looked eagerly from one to the 
 other. 
 
 " Certainement, ma petite, une bonne 
 idee ! " said M. Grandpierre approvingly. 
 " You vould take zem in place of ze sacs 
 de sable ? " 
 
 " I could take a few sacks of sand. The 
 flour would serve as reserve ballast. I do 
 hope I shall not need to waste it." 
 
 " Allans ! Dat vould not be a great 
 mattoire, be-yond flouring peut-etre, ze 
 outzide of a German, au lieu of ze inzide 
 of a Frenchman. And zince eet is for mes 
 compatriotes, you must let me eet pourvoir.
 
 The Witch of A lias . 135 
 
 I vill give ze order dis ve-ree mineet," and 
 M. Grandpierre brought his fat fore-finger 
 emphatically down on the ivory knob of 
 the hand-bell on the table. 
 
 " And Gytha, darling," plaintively ap- 
 pealed madame, who had been listening 
 with marked attention, " would it be 
 troubling you too much to convey a few 
 delicacies to my friend, Madame de Segur ? 
 She is an invalid like myself." 
 
 " Certainly I will, dear madame, if you 
 will give me her address," she readily 
 assented, although fearing the commission 
 would involve more or less delay. 
 
 " Many, many thanks to you, dear. I 
 have so wished I could send her a few 
 things, which I fear she cannot now 
 procure. She lives in the Eue de Bac, but 
 I will have her address attached to the 
 articles, and then they will be quite ready 
 for you to give to a messenger." 
 
 Monsieur, who had been giving his orders 
 respecting the sacks of flour, turned his
 
 136 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 attention in time to hear his wife's last 
 remark, and shrugged his portly shoulders, 
 as he helped himself to some devilled 
 chicken, at her implicit faith in a hungry 
 
 " And, my dear," she went on, her cheek 
 slightly flushing with the excitement of 
 the moment, "may I add a few bottles 
 of Ratifia? It is a cordial she greatly 
 fancies." 
 
 "But, madame, it would never exist 
 bottled in the rarefied atmosphere ; it would 
 be pop, and vanish in a trice." 
 
 " Comme de raison ! " impatiently re- 
 joined M. Grandpierre. u Have I not you 
 inform-ed, ma chere Lucie, ze dat zevataire 
 zim-pel vataire, do be-come as effervescent 
 as ze champagne." 
 
 " Ah, yes, I remember now," replied his 
 wife. " Then I must give up that idea." 
 
 Breakfast being now concluded, she 
 asked Gytha if she felt disposed to visit the 
 conservatories ; and on being answered in
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 137 
 
 the affirmative, she summoned her bonne, 
 a sturdy, elderly Breton, who noiselessly 
 wheeled an invalid-chair into the room. 
 Having lifted her mistress into it, the 
 servant, according to directions, propelled 
 it through an arched doorway into a crys- 
 tal fairyland, brilliant with blooms and 
 delicious with perfumes. 
 
 Keeping pace with her hostess's chair as 
 it slowly moved through the bowery 
 arcades, Gytha passed admiring comments 
 on now this, and now that, special 
 " mignonne " of her host, who, however, 
 complained that she was distrait. But 
 the complaint was quickly followed by the 
 sympathetic excuse of the aeronaut, that 
 a belle Seren6 was la personne qui distrait. 
 And her host was right ; for the apprehen- 
 sion of anything going amiss with the 
 balloon, during the critical process of 
 inflation, was never absent from her 
 mind. She was glad when, on reaching 
 the extent of the far- stretching conser-
 
 138 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 vatories, M. Grand pierre proposed that, 
 instead of returning through them, they 
 should straightway proceed to the scene of 
 inflation. 
 
 The bonne having lightly folded a wrap 
 around her mistress, who prevailed on 
 Gytha to make use of a spare one, they 
 passed out of the richly perfumed atmo- 
 sphere into the jardin de plaisance, where 
 the north wind was blowing freshly. The 
 Serena could now be seen gracefully 
 deporting herself in the centre of an 
 extensive lawn, which, to qualify for the 
 purpose of ascents, M. Grandpierre had 
 underlaid with a huge gas-pipe, the mouth 
 of which was now inserted in the neck of 
 the balloon. 
 
 Leaving his guest to a tete-a-te'te with 
 his wife, M. Grandpierre moved away to 
 where Thrupp was busy preparing the car. 
 
 " Aye, she is soncy enough," proudly 
 admitted that individual, in response to 
 the admiration excited in M. Grandpierre's
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 139 
 
 mind and expressed in enthusiastic, though 
 mixed, language. 
 
 '* She is charmani ! Helas, ma pauvre 
 Ren ! Vid vat elegance she did al-zo 
 dees-play." His thick voice became 
 tremulous with emotion, as he descanted 
 on his loved and lost. " Tonnerre ! Ven 
 on my back I did lie, and did my eyes lift, 
 voila! zaire was la perfidie zoaring avay 
 and avay ! " 
 
 " Whaur was it she gae ye the slip, 
 sir ? " inquired Thrupp, who had, however, 
 heard the story before. 
 
 " In Limoges, mon ami, in Limoges. 
 Ah, la mignonne, she did break ze heart, 
 ze ve-ree heart of me." And his eyes 
 blinked with tears as they gazed at the 
 crimson and white striped sphere gracing 
 his lawn. 
 
 " Atweel, sir, I wadna greet ower the 
 fause loon. It was chancy (lucky) she 
 broke the heart, an' na' the back o' ye," 
 drily responded Thrupp, .as he swung
 
 140 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 himself out of the car. " I maun gae an 5 
 close the pipe off-hand. She is fu' enough 
 noo," and he hastened away towards the 
 sprightly aerostat. 
 
 Looking towards the spot where he had 
 left his wife and guest, he perceived that 
 the latter had disappeared, and at once 
 hurried forward to learn the reason. 
 Before, however, he had gained madame's 
 side, Gytha reappeared, equipped in her 
 hood and jacket. She looked as composed 
 as though she only purposed taking a walk 
 or drive ; but when, a few minutes later, on 
 Thrupp apprising her that he had completed 
 the Serena's " outreik," she turned and 
 took her farewell of Madame Grandpierre, 
 the icy touch of her lips betokened 
 extreme though repressed excitement. 
 
 Bidding her maid wheel her chair 
 nearer the balloon, madame looked 
 wistfully on, while Gytha entered the car, 
 outside which were rigged four sacks of 
 sand and twelve of flour, while over the
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 141 
 
 hoop were slung a brace of pheasants, 
 destined for Madame de Segur. 
 
 " The sky is somedele lowering 1 , 1 doubt 
 we will sune lose sight o' ye miss," 
 observed Thrupp, as he shut up the car- 
 steps. " Belike ye will find it mair 
 cheerfu' on tither side the clouds. Hech, 
 the spunkie is eager enough to be awa'," 
 he added, as the Serena strained at her 
 ropes, held in the strong grasp of a quar- 
 tette of gardeners. 
 
 " Yes, I must away 1 Good-bye, dear 
 friends," she said, looking around on them 
 with shining eyes. 
 
 " Good-bye, dear child, good-bye. The 
 blessed Virgin watch over you," tearfully 
 exclaimed madame, fluttering her hand- 
 kerchief. 
 
 "Bon voyage, ma petite! Les saints 
 escort you ! " ejaculated monsieur, bowing 
 low his uncovered head. 
 
 " Gude-speed and luck gae wi' ye, miss," 
 said Thrupp, touching his cap.
 
 142 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 Gytha's pale, compressed lips parted in 
 a tremulous smile of acknowledgment ; 
 for a moment they were again tightly 
 pressed, and then the critical command 
 was given, " Let go ! " 
 
 In an instant she was snatched up 
 from the midst of her well-wishers. 
 In two minutes, at a height of one 
 thousand six hundred feet, the Serena 
 paused suddenly, descended a hundred 
 feet, and then the chateau and the watchers 
 on the lawn appeared to glide swiftly 
 away from beneath the aeronaut, who 
 knew the balloon had now yielded herself 
 to a southerly current. 
 
 Soon the chdteau was a white spot in 
 the green distance, and the City of 
 Churches lay beneath her ; swiftly the 
 view gave place to a monotony of fields, 
 streaked with hedge-rows, and sparsely 
 dotted with trees. 
 
 Applying herself to work the windlass, 
 Gytha remembered how O'Rorke had
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 143 
 
 turned it to the " Song of the Silent Land." 
 And as she turned the wheel a forlorn 
 and gloomy look deepened in her eyes. 
 
 The rope, running out to its limit, broke 
 the sad train of thought; and, turning 
 from the windlass with a deep-drawn 
 breath, she bent over the instrument- 
 board and noted the indication of needle 
 and column. Both were satisfactory. 
 Raising her stooping figure to its full 
 height, Gytha stood for a moment in a 
 motionless attitude, looking up at the 
 buoyant sphere. It evinced no sign either 
 of depression or dilation. She turned, 
 and, folding her arms on the edge of the 
 car, in one of the spaces between the 
 suspending ropes, she looked down on the 
 flying landscape. Now she was speeding 
 over green pasture-land, where 
 
 " The cattle are grazing, 
 Their heads never raising." 
 
 Now it was an orchard, where peasants 
 were busy gathering the fruit; but the
 
 144 TJie Witch of Atlas. 
 
 heads of the bipeds were raised, one and 
 all, and a score of gaping eyes followed her 
 flight. And now a village, from whence 
 rose the ringing of a forge, the crowing of 
 cocks, or the hum of distant traffic. 
 
 But one feature was never lost to sight 
 the silver-grey, smooth-flowing Seine. 
 And while that lay beneath her eyes, she 
 knew there was little need for looking at 
 the compass. 
 
 For a few minutes the Serena pursued 
 her course over that of a straight, dusty 
 road, where, before a quaint little way- 
 side inn, stood a waggon of hay, that 
 seemed to gleam in the sunlight. The 
 driver was in the act of quaffing the 
 contents of a tankard, when he sighted 
 her, and excitedly pointed her out to the 
 inn-keeper. 
 
 Then, far in advance on the road, a 
 well-loaded diligence could be seen pushing 
 on its way, leaving behind it a trailing 
 cloud of dust. In a moment the wind-borne
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 145 
 
 chariot overtook the lumbering conveyance 
 whose passengers were enthusiastically 
 waving hats, caps, and handkerchiefs. 
 
 . " OIL allez-vous, monsieur ? " shouted 
 a masculine voice, the owner evidently 
 labouring under the mistake that the 
 aeronaut was of the sterner sex. 
 
 Snatching the speaking-trumpet from 
 where it hung, she raised it to her lips 
 and made answer, 
 
 " A Paris ! Quelle distance y a-t-il 
 d'ici ? " Holding her breath, she intently 
 listened for the answer. 
 
 Faintly, but distinctly, it reached her 
 ear. 
 
 " II y a cinquante milles ! " 
 
 Then, as she left the diligence behind, 
 the driver raised a horn to his lips, and 
 a right merry blast pierced the air, and 
 resounded from the silken dome overhead. 
 
 Looking from the lessening cloud of 
 dust to the chronometer, she saw that 
 forty-five mirutes had elapsed since she 
 
 L
 
 146 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 started, in which time, according to the 
 information just obtained, she must have 
 travelled thirty-six miles. If the current 
 would but hold good, another hour would 
 suffice to cover the remaining fifty miles. 
 
 She again looked up at the balloon. It 
 still maintained a befitting degree of 
 rotundity. Suddenly, the composure on 
 the balloonist's upturned face changed to 
 a look of alarm. Those were surely rain- 
 drops ! Yes, fast and thick they fell, 
 crackling sharply on the surface of the silk- 
 To prevent the balloon being drenched 
 and weighed down with moisture, Gytha 
 decided that she must mount above the 
 stormy nimbus, regardless of the risk of 
 finding an adverse current, and at once 
 discharged the contents of a ballast-bag. 
 
 Slowly the Serena rose against the 
 beating rain. The aeronaut continued to 
 cast out pound after pound of sand, her 
 heart misgiving her, as she remarked how 
 slowly the quantity discharged counter-
 
 T/ie Witch of Atlas. 147 
 
 acted the condensing influence of the 
 seemingly limitless mass of vapour through 
 which the balloon was ascending. 
 
 Having penetrated a thickness of 8000 
 feet, the balloon rose out of the fog, not, 
 as Gytha had anticipated, into a sunny 
 far-vaulted dome of blue sky, but into a 
 dull, cloud-bound space, where sounded 
 a hollow moan, that apprised her of an 
 invisible conflict between opposed currents; 
 but glancing at the needle, as the Serena 
 resumed a horizontal course, she saw to 
 her relief that she had not surmounted the 
 favourable current by which she had been 
 travelling. 
 
 The car just skimmed the ruffled sur- 
 face of the cloud ocean stretching away on 
 every side to the celestial horizon. But 
 soon the vapoury billows gathered them- 
 selves together, and rising around the 
 aerial craft, deeply engulfed it, obstruct- 
 ing the wide-spreading prospect, and 
 producing a stifling and oppressive sen- 
 L 2
 
 148 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 sation on the voyager. Gytha tried to 
 overcome the sensation, to reason herself 
 into calm endurance of the murky op- 
 pression; for, unless a depression on the 
 part of the balloon obliged her, she was 
 unwilling to rise higher above the vapour, 
 on account of the necessary loss of 
 ballast, and the likelihood of encountering 
 an adverse current, of which the moaning 
 sound above still warned her. 
 
 Suddenly there looked down upon her, 
 from the ominous clouds overhead, the 
 lustreless, dull orb of day, appearing to her 
 excited imagination as the expressionless, 
 blood-shot eye of a lunatic. A look of 
 horror swept over her white face, and a 
 tremor ran through her frame. If the 
 clouds would but again hide from her sight 
 this awful accuser ! But no ; the ghastly 
 orb continued to glare upon her, until, in a 
 panic of nameless dread, she sank trem- 
 bling and nerveless on the bench, hiding 
 her face in her hands.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 149 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 " And of the Prussian missiles stood the mark ? " 
 
 Victor Hugo. 
 
 GASPING for breath, G-ytha let her hands fall 
 from her face, and straightway her panic 
 was merged in wonder. The towering 
 masses of vapour, dissolved into rain, fell 
 on the right and on the left of her, form- 
 ing two liquid walls, opening to the Serena 
 as dry a passage as that opened to the 
 Israelites through the Eed Sea. Never 
 before had Gytha witnessed the like, and 
 she gazed at the strange sight with intense 
 interest. 
 
 As she gazed, a low, rumbling sound as 
 of distant thunder struck her ear. She lis-
 
 150 The Witch of Alias. 
 
 tened intently; the sound continued, and 
 seemed to rise from the clouds below. 
 
 She concluded that a thunder-storm was 
 about to burst ; but very soon her straining 
 ears perceived that it was terrestrial, not 
 celestial artillery. 
 
 She must be over the scene of invest- 
 ment ! 
 
 A flush tingeing her pallid face, she 
 glanced at the barometer, it indicated an 
 altitude of 9800 feet. Then at the 
 chronometer, 11*55 ; it wanted fifteen 
 minutes to complete the hour that she 
 had considered would suffice to accomplish 
 her journey. Evidently the current had 
 gained in velocity. 
 
 Having allowed a few minutes to elapse, 
 that the Serena might get well over Paris, 
 she opened the valve for a moment. Then, 
 as the balloon sank into the wetting fog, 
 Gytha leaned over the car and discharged 
 the ballast necessary to check the 
 acceleration of the Serena's downward
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 151 
 
 course. To her regret, she was soon 
 obliged to largely draw upon the sacks of 
 flour, so marked was the condensation, SQ 
 rapid the descent. 
 
 Louder and louder boomed the heavy 
 cannonade. Keener and keener sounded 
 the sharp discharge of musketry. Her 
 heart leapt within her when, on breaking 
 through the clouds, she beheld the far- 
 extending investing lines ; the grey Seine, 
 speckled with gun-boats ; the long boun- 
 dary of fortifications ; and beyond, a con_ 
 fusion of domes and pinnacles, marking 
 the city of the Seven Sieges. There lay 
 her destination ; and here, directly beneath 
 her, the heights of St. Cloud crowned by 
 the Prussian batteries. 
 
 She flashed a glance at the barometer, 
 247 inches, 5280 feet. As yet the 
 Serena was beyond gun-shot ; but, owing 
 to the moisture through which she had 
 passed, continued to descend rapidly, in 
 an oblique direction, towards the river.
 
 152 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 It was with increasing alarm that she 
 continued to throw out pound after 
 pound of flour ; but still the balloon bent 
 her course downward. The smoke-clouded 
 ranks of infantry became more and more 
 distinct. Gytha could see the soldiers 
 pointing their rifles at the fast collapsing 
 balloon, and could hear the bullets whizz- 
 
 * 
 
 ing through the air. 
 
 "With trembling hands she poured out 
 her precious ballast. The last bag was 
 cast away ; and the Serena still sank, the 
 strong current inclining her nearer and 
 nearer to the Seine. Gytha cast a longing 
 glance at the Bois de Boulogne on the 
 opposite side. If only the balloon could 
 escape the balls, and cross the river to 
 safety ! 
 
 With face white as death, but eyes in- 
 tensely brilliant, she severed the grapnel- 
 rope. The Serena paused, and hung 
 motionless ; and as motionless stood the 
 aeronaut, every sense on the alert for the 
 next movement.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 153 
 
 It was an ascensive one. 
 
 With reviving hope she looked about 
 her for something to throw out, and so 
 speed the ascent. She was stooping to 
 gather up the rug, when she suddenly 
 started upright. A vibration had ap- 
 prised her of the direful fact that the 
 balloon was struck ! A loud sighing im- 
 mediately ensued. The Serena halted and 
 reeled, like a stunned creature ; then, still 
 quivering and sighing, sank heavily. 
 
 In desperate haste G-ytha snatched up 
 the rug and cast it out, taking as she 
 did so a swift survey of her situation. To 
 all appearance the balloon was bent for the 
 river. There was just a possibility that 
 the wind would waft her to the further 
 bank lined with soldiers. She must pro- 
 long the descent to her utmost power. 
 
 The empty instrument-case, and the 
 packages of isinglass, arrowroot, and such 
 like, intended for the invalid, followed 
 each other pell-mell into space. She was
 
 154 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 uplifting her arm to unsling the brace 
 of pheasants when, with a cry of anguish, 
 she let it drop heavily at her side. A 
 bullet had struck it ! Pain, like a wave 
 of fire, overwhelmed her, and the next in- 
 stant, all cold and faint at the sight of the 
 blood staining her sleeve, she sank to the 
 bottom of the car. Almost immediately 
 the car struck the ground, with a shock 
 that seemed to wrench the traveller's arm 
 from its socket. Stifling darkness fell upon 
 Gytha. In her agony and terror, she cried 
 out for light, for air ! 
 
 " In one moment, madame," said some 
 one, in tolerably good English. 
 
 There was a muffled murmur of voices, 
 a rustling stir, and then, as the collapsed 
 envelope was dragged aside, light and a 
 dozen excited faces burst upon her. 
 
 " Juste del ! Madame is wounded ! " ex- 
 claimed the man who had spoken first, an 
 officer, in Chasseur uniform, who vaulted 
 lightly despite his advanced years into
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 155 
 
 the car, and raised her from her recumbent 
 position to a seat on the bench. Then 
 pulling a silver flask from his pocket, he 
 poured some cognac into the cup and held 
 it to her white quivering lips. "While his 
 left hand was thus engaged, his right 
 tugged unmercifully at his iron-grey Henri 
 Quatre moustache. The next minute, both 
 left and right authoritatively waved aside 
 the crowding soldiery. 
 
 As the human palisade fell back, Gytha 
 breathed more freely, and was inexpres- 
 sibly relieved to find she had fallen amongst 
 the French instead of the Prussians. Then 
 the burden of her anxiety found speech. 
 
 " M. d'Arminges I want M. d'Armin- 
 ges ! " 
 
 " He shall be informed of madame's 
 injury without delay," was her new friend's 
 immediate rejoinder. 
 
 " Oh, it is not for that you know then 
 where he is ? " she questioned, with reviv- 
 ing animation.
 
 156 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 " Certainly, at the Palais de 1'Industrie. 
 He is attached to the Ambulance Inter" 
 nationale. I assumed it was on account 
 of your arm you needed him," he added, 
 inquiringly. Then, as slitting up the 
 blood-stained sleeve, he bared to view the 
 white shapeliness of her arm, disfigured 
 midway between the elbow and shoulder 
 by a small hole, from which the blood was 
 slowly oozing, he declared, with serious 
 concern, " It requires surgical treatment 
 without loss of time ! " 
 
 Gytha glanced down quickly, and as 
 quickly averted her eyes. 
 
 ls Then M. d'Arminges will see to it. 
 Is there any available conveyance here ? 
 My business with him is most pressing ! " 
 she said, looking anxiously around. Horses 
 there were in plenty picketed about, but 
 the only vehicles she could see were huge 
 ambulances and provision-waggons. 
 
 "Avoiture could be procured for madame; 
 but, indeed, I fear the jolting would be
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 157 
 
 insufferable. I will send for M. d'Armin- 
 ges to come to you." 
 
 And, as he tore into strips his fine-linen 
 handkerchief, he gave his orders to a Garde 
 Mobile, who quickly made for a picketed 
 horse, and having untethered him, mounted 
 and rode smartly away. Gytha tightly 
 compressed her blanched lips, as the 
 Chasseur officer proceeded to bandage her 
 inflamed and bleeding arm. 
 
 " Madame is as brave to endure as to 
 venture," he observed, as he carefully 
 continued his task. " I much lament so 
 intrepid a venture should have so unfor- 
 tunately failed. I surmise madame met 
 with adverse currents." 
 
 "No, they have been favourable; but 
 about an hour after I left Rouen the rain 
 obliged me to travel above the clouds. 
 But for that, I should have better timed 
 my descent," she replied, dejectedly. 
 
 " Left Rouen ! I have been under the 
 impression you were attempting to leave
 
 158 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 Paris ! I never dreamed it was the desti- 
 nation desired by madame. I rejoice you 
 have so far succeeded in an essay that has 
 cost you so much suffering," he concluded, 
 looking at her skilfully-bandaged arm, 
 with combined regret and satisfaction. 
 
 " I would not mind that, if only the 
 balloon had escaped being struck," she 
 said, her troubled eyes directed to the 
 collapsed mass of silk. " I wonder to 
 what extent she is damaged." 
 
 " I will ascertain for madame," and 
 swinging himself out of the car, he called 
 some of the soldiers to assist him. Having 
 detached the envelope, he began carefully 
 overhauling its shrinking form. It proved 
 to be impaired only in two places, there 
 being in the lower portion a hole, without 
 doubt, pierced by a cannon-ball, and in 
 the upper portion, where it must have 
 emerged, the hole had been strained into a 
 rent by the escaping gas. 
 
 During the investigation one of the men
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 159 
 
 pulled out to view and held aloft the 
 pheasants, which the officer undertook to 
 have safely delivered attheattached address. 
 
 He then requested Gytha to allow the 
 men to bear her in the car to his tent, 
 where she could with more safety await 
 M. d'Arminges. In reply to which pro- 
 posal she said there was no need for her 
 to give that trouble as she could walk. 
 Overruling her objection, he gave the word, 
 and the basket-chariot was carefully borne 
 over the wheel-rutted sward. How differ- 
 ent to the velvet smoothness which she 
 and her father had once trod ; how changed 
 was the entire scene ! Then so gay and 
 picturesque, now so devastated by the 
 plague of war. 
 
 On her way she passed numbers of 
 soldiers engaged in hewing down theforest- 
 trees, and in forming barricades across the 
 roads. 
 
 Soon the waters of a lake gleamed 
 upon her sight, and then its whole
 
 1 60 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 shimmering expanse, near which extended 
 a line of tents. Thitherward her car- 
 bearers directed their steps, and soon 
 halting before one, gently deposited their 
 burden on the ground. 
 
 The officer, who had kept pace with the 
 men, now forestalled her attempt to let 
 down the steps, assisted her to descend and 
 ushered her into the roomy tent. Pulling 
 forward a camp-chair, he begged her to be 
 seated, and then extemporized his valise 
 into a footstool. Having prevailed upon 
 her to take a little Maraschino, he left her 
 with the apology that he must return to 
 his post. 
 
 It seemed a long, weary time that she 
 had been sitting there, with eyes closed on 
 the light that made her brain throb 
 feverishly, but with ears perforce open to 
 the loud thundering of Mont Valerian, when 
 she heard a voice announcing, " La, 
 dedans, monsieur." And she opened her 
 eyes just as M. d'Arminges presented him-
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 161 
 
 self in the opening of the tent, looking 
 just the same as when last she saw him, 
 both in his attire and in the aspect of his 
 face, excepting the addition to the former of 
 a Red Cross insignia, and to the latter of 
 a trim "Imperial," whose glossy jettiness 
 rendered yet more striking the dull 
 whiteness of his complexion. It might be 
 said of M. d'Arrninges, that he was an 
 embodied French rendering of the English 
 proverb that states a surgeon should 
 possess " an eagle's eye, a lion's heart, and 
 a lady's hand." 
 
 " I feared la brave Anglais could be 
 none other than yourself, mademoiselle ; 
 the garde had forgotten your name by the 
 time he reached me. But what does it all 
 mean ? I am astonished and grieved 
 beyond words. Surely your descent in 
 this besieged place was by accident, not 
 design ! " he said, with as perfect a pro- 
 nunciation and as rapid an utterance as 
 though he spoke his own language. 
 
 M
 
 1 62 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 " I am here on a most painful errand, 
 monsieur, concerning Mr. O'Rorke," she 
 began, as she clasped his extended hand, 
 long-fingered and slender, whose unerring 
 dexterity had accomplished such wonders, 
 and would, she believed, pluck her deliverer 
 from the brink of that horrible gulf of 
 insanity. 
 
 " Derrick what of him ? " he asked, 
 with an anxiety that warned her how 
 acutely her news would affect him, and 
 that caused her voice to falter as she pro- 
 ceeded to impart it. 
 
 " We he ascended with me yesterday, 
 an accident happened, we were being 
 dashed to the ground, and he leapt from 
 the car. His head it is injured Sir 
 Vincent Hunt fears his reason may be 
 fatally affected but oh, you will save 
 it!" 
 
 " Heaven grant I may ! What is the 
 nature of the injury ? " 
 
 " Compression of the brain."
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 163 
 
 " From fracture or rupture ? " 
 
 " From bone," Sir Vincent said. " And it 
 is to fetch you to him that I am here. 
 But what can we do ? The balloon is 
 useless it was struck by a cannon-ball ; 
 we shall be obliged to wait until it is 
 mended and refilled." 
 
 The thought of the unavoidable delay 
 flushed her pale face. " There is no other 
 way you cannot obtain a pass ? " she 
 added, looking at him with an all-absorbing 
 anxiety. 
 
 He decisively shook his head. 
 
 " Fortunately a club-balloon leaves Paris 
 to-night, possibly I may be able to obtain 
 a seat in her. I will ascertain as soon as 
 I have attended to your wound." 
 
 " Go now, go at once ! Delay may lose 
 you a seat," she urged. 
 
 The keen black eyes meeting hers took 
 a deliberating expression. 
 
 Gytha waited impatiently for the result 
 of his deliberation. 
 
 M 2
 
 1 64 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 " I saw Captain Drone on my way here, 
 and he told me he believed the bullet 
 was lodged in your arm ; so I have been 
 thinking that before I see to its extraction 
 it would be well to get you to the Hotel 
 Wagram. I could then leave you to the 
 care of Madame Raboteau, a widowed lady 
 who was very kind to my wife when we 
 boarded there, and will I am confident 
 do" 
 
 "But the balloon the seat!" she in- 
 terrupted. 
 
 " I will go at once, and return in a 
 voiture to convey you to the Hotel." As 
 he spoke he took from his surgical-case a 
 length of broad bandage, with which he 
 made a sling for her arm. And having 
 done this much for the alleviation of her 
 pain, he no longer delayed his important 
 quest. 
 
 When he returned, Gytha's keen 
 suspense was relieved by the welcome 
 intelligence that he had obtained a seat.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 165 
 
 "I am thankful!" she said, fervently. 
 " I suppose you could not have secured one 
 for me also?'* 
 
 " My dear mademoiselle, a bed is what 
 must be secured for you ! I sincerely 
 regret your having to remain in Paris ; 
 but it is inevitable. As soon as you are 
 sufficiently restored to travel, you may 
 be able to obtain a pass from General 
 Trochu. I will speak about it to Doctor 
 Daubeny, whom I shall request to attend 
 you. But the voiture is awaiting you at 
 a short distance. Do you feel equal to 
 walking it with my assistance ?" 
 
 " Certainly," she quickly replied. 
 
 Outside the tent she accepted her 
 friend's proffered arm, and, with swim- 
 ming head and uncertain steps, gave her- 
 self up to his guidance. 
 
 In a few minutes he lifted her into the 
 open voiture 9 placing her in the most 
 comfortable position it allowed. Having 
 been charged to drive slowly and carefully,
 
 1 66 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 the cocker de cabriolet mounted to his 
 seat. 
 
 "I must not forget to ask you the 
 name of the place where the accident 
 happened," said M. d'Arminges, produc- 
 ing an ivory tablet. 
 
 " Chilworth. It is a village near 
 Guildford. A hop-grower, Orde by name, 
 has received him into his house, * Ten- 
 acre ' it is called." 
 
 He scribbled down the address in 
 full. 
 
 "And at your first convenience, 
 monsieur, will you send a telegram to 
 Thrupp, who is awaiting me in Rouen, 
 at M. Grandpierre's directing him to 
 return to Chelsea." 
 
 " Thrupp, my patient of old," he re- 
 marked with interest. " Certainly I will," 
 and the French address was added to the 
 English one. " Is there anything else I can 
 do for you ? Without doubt you are unpre- 
 pared to meet the expenses you will incur
 
 'The Witch of Atlas. 167 
 
 by your detention here, but I will put my 
 signature to a few cheques, which you 
 must allow me to leave with you to be 
 filled up at your discretion. It is 
 very hard on you to be obliged to 
 remain here, but I trust it will not be 
 for long. You must not be alarmed at 
 the bombardment, the Hotel is situated 
 well into the city, in the Rue de Eivoli, 
 fifteen minutes' drive from here." 
 
 They had now reached the gate of the 
 fortifications. The green bois lay behind, 
 the " Queen City of Civilization " before 
 them. 
 
 " The necessity of remaining here 
 troubles me chiefly on account of the 
 uncertainty I shall be under as to the result 
 of the operation," she replied, wincing as 
 the voiture, now passing through the 
 Champs-Elysees, jolted over a fragment 
 of exploded shell. " You will not, of 
 course, be able to return ? " 
 
 " I shall make the attempt. I am most
 
 1 68 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 thankful that my wife and the boy are out 
 of the place. I could not have left them 
 here with the doubt whether I should be 
 able to get back to them. As it is, it is 
 awkward enough ; I am sorry at having 
 to desert my post now that my services 
 are in such request. Only yesterday a 
 hundred wounded were brought into the 
 Palais de 1'Industrie, and that is only one 
 of over two hundred ambulances. But, 
 of course. Derrick must be my first 
 consideration, I believe it would affect 
 my wife's reason were he to lose his, 
 she simply idolizes him she does not, I 
 suppose, know anything of this ? " 
 
 Glancing at her as he put the question, 
 he was startled to see that she had 
 swooned.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 169 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 " My slumbers if I slumber are not sleep, 
 But a continuance of enduring thought 
 Which then I can resist not : in my heart 
 There is a vigil, and these eyes but close 
 To look within." 
 
 Byron. 
 
 WHEN sensibility and consciousness re- 
 sumed their suspended sway, Gytha found 
 herself lying in a white-draped bed, above 
 the wooden footboard of which appeared a 
 dark chignon and a lamp-cast silhouette of 
 a high, straight forehead and slightly 
 aquiline nose. As she looked at the 
 motionless silhouette, a mirthful laugh 
 broke the silence. The chignon tilted 
 backwards, and then a pair of laughing 
 lips, and a rounded chin rose to view. 
 
 The next moment the face was turned 
 full on her; then came an exclamation,
 
 170 77*2 Witch of Atlas. 
 
 followed by the possessor of the chignon 
 starting to her feet, and moving round to 
 the bedside. 
 
 " What, darling, awake and surveying 
 your quarters ? " she said, in a voice 
 mellow and sympathetic. " And how 
 are you feeling now thirsty, no doubt ? " 
 and she held a glass to Gytha's parched 
 lips. 
 
 Having drunk deeply of the refreshing 
 draught, she looked up into the pleasant 
 face bending over her, and asked the 
 question, 
 
 " Has M. d'Arminges gone ? " 
 
 " Yes, dear, as soon as he had rid your 
 arm of that pesky bullet." 
 
 "But I don't remember anything 
 about it. Was I unconscious ? " 
 
 "Yes, dear; and I was glad you were. But 
 don't imagine the operation was anything 
 very dreadful ; on the contrary, the bullet 
 was very easy of extraction, for it had run 
 up your arm and lodged on the lip of the
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 1 7 1 
 
 scapula. So you don't remember coming 
 round, and our giving you the opiate ? " 
 
 " No ; the last thing I remember was 
 being in the cab with M. d'Arminges. 
 "What time was it when he left ? " 
 
 " About four o'clock. Soon after sun- 
 set one of the carrier-pigeons returned to 
 the cot, and they found word on her that 
 the Circe had descended near Rheims. 
 There now, you must reflect on that bit 
 of good news whilst you eat this jelly. I 
 think you must submit to be fed," she said, 
 putting a spoonful of the amber jelly to 
 Gytha's lips. 
 
 " Four o'clock, and what time is it 
 now ? " she asked, as the spoon returned 
 to the glass. 
 
 " Nearly one ah, your poor arm ! " she 
 said, as a spasm of pain contracted the 
 pale face on the pillow. " Let me move 
 you into a more easy position." 
 
 As the plump firm hands and muscular 
 arms performed their work, Gytha looked
 
 172 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 up gratefully into the kind eyes that met 
 hers. 
 
 " You are Madame Madame " 
 
 " I am Madame Eobateau, and you are 
 under my care until you are well and 
 strong again," she answered, taking up 
 glass and spoon again. 
 
 " You are very good, inadame, to under- 
 take the care of me." 
 
 " Not at all, my dear. I consider good- 
 ness is the rendering pleasantly an un- 
 pleasant service. And the service you 
 require of me is one I take especial delight 
 in. My mother-in-law has been pleased 
 to declare that I am an invaluable garde- 
 malade. She is bedridden, poor old soul, 
 a martyr to rheumatism. It was on her 
 account I remained here in Paris. She 
 would not hear of being moved, but begged 
 me to leave her to her fate. Leave her 
 to her fate indeed ! I should have felt as 
 cruel as the Northern Indians are to their 
 sick, when they are tribing from place to
 
 T/te Witch of Atlas. 173 
 
 place. But I did feel in a fix about 
 Aimee my little girl ; Madame d' Arminges 
 offered to take her with her to England, 
 but I could not, no, I could not spare her ! " 
 
 Her mellow voice became tremulous 
 with strong emotion. 
 
 " You must indeed have felt distracted, 
 dear madame, and, of course, will feel 
 very anxious as long as this terrible state 
 of things continue in Paris." 
 
 " Wa'al" (thus revealing her nationality), 
 " I suppose I well might be, but somehow it 
 doesn't seem in me to worry. I guess the 
 fact is there is a hope for every fear, and 
 I am naturally more sanguine than appre- 
 hensive. I tell the mother, to save myself 
 from the charge of callousness, that my 
 mind's eye is short-sighted, and can't see 
 trouble in the distance, but this visual 
 excuse didn't prove such a happy one as 
 I thought, for she thinks it more than 
 ever her duty to warn me of the dangers 
 she discries in the distance no more, dear,
 
 174 The Witch of Atlas . 
 
 just this one spoonful. And now, darling, 
 you must shut your eyes, and I my 
 lips." 
 
 " * A hope for every fear,' " slowly 
 repeated G-ytha, " I suppose there is ; 
 though nothing but fears crowd upon me." 
 
 Madame Eaboteau stooped and kissed 
 her softly on the forehead. 
 
 "Dear child, send fears to the miller, 
 and take heart of grace." 
 
 " But oh, madame, do you know what 
 cause I have for my fears ? Did monsieur 
 tell you?" 
 
 " Yes, I know, sweet. But remember, 
 ' Les malheurs des malheurs sent ceux qui 
 n'arrivent jamais.' And now try to sleep 
 again, I am mum for the night ;" and she 
 closed her lips with an expression that 
 barred, and double-barred them, as she 
 took up her book and resumed her seat. 
 
 " Indeed, you must not sit up, madame, 
 there is not the least need of it ! " protested 
 her charge.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 175 
 
 " My dear girl, I am going to sit up, 
 and Mark Twain dear comical drole is 
 going to keep me company ; so you need 
 not fear that I shall feel dull. The only 
 fear is, that I shall laugh at his too 
 ridiculous remarks, and disturb you ! " 
 
 Obediently closing her eyes, Gytha 
 reflected and wondered, until she fell 
 
 asleep. 
 
 * * * # 
 
 " Three weeks ! I must bear this 
 intolerable suspense three weeks unless 
 M. d'Arminges contrives to return." 
 
 It was nearing noon, and M. d'Arminges' 
 medical deputy had just left his English 
 patient, having carefully redressed her 
 wound, and informing her that she would 
 be disabled for any exertion for at least 
 three weeks. 
 
 " And he will return by hook or by 
 crook. I feel sure of it ! " rejoined 
 Madame Eaboteau, lifting her hazel eyes 
 from the muslin pinafore she was darning.
 
 1 76 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 tl Thanks to the pigeon, we are satisfied 
 that he is safe on his journey or perhaps 
 by this time he is with his brother-in-law." 
 
 " Perhaps he is performing the opera- 
 tion at this very minute," said G-ytha, her 
 subdued voice faltering at the thought. 
 Then presently she suddenly turned her 
 head sideways on the pillow, and appealed 
 with eyes and lips to her garde-malade. 
 
 " Oh, madame, tell me all you know 
 about his skill; tell me, has it ever failed ? " 
 
 " Don't ask me, my love ! I know very 
 little of M. d'Arminges' doings ; he seldom 
 discusses them with any one. I questioned 
 him once respecting his cure of a paralytic 
 lady, a friend of mine, and I believe he 
 thought he would satisfy my curiosity 
 once and for ever, he went on so about 
 cerebrum and cerebellum, their fissures, 
 convolutions, cells by the legion and lobes 
 with the most crack-jaw names ; but when 
 he spoke of the legs of the brain I sprang 
 to my bodily ones, declaring he was draw-
 
 The Witch of Atlas, 177 
 
 ing the long-bow ! And would you believe 
 it," she added, laughing, " the very 
 next day, that child of mine cute little 
 chipper that she is came to me with 
 a doleful face and a grievance. She 
 had laid open her doll's head; and the 
 grievance was that, ' they hadn't put any 
 legs or funny things inside ! ' She must 
 have been in the room when monsieur 
 made his statements, and been more 
 impressed with them than I was." 
 
 " And made her doll the subject for 
 anatomy," said Gytha, smiling. " "What a 
 practical little woman she must be ! I am 
 afraid she must have rued having made 
 such a sacrifice to science." 
 
 "Yes, she did at first; but, when I told 
 monsieur of her vain researches, he 
 laughed, and straightway set himself to 
 repair the mischief. His operation was 
 perfectly successful; and Aimee was as 
 proud as Punch to tell her little friends 
 that M. d' Arminges had cured ' Mamzeiie 
 
 N
 
 1 78 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 Lorinne's ' head. But before * Mamzelle 
 Lorinne' went the way of all dolls, she 
 rejoiced in a whole string of aliases, for 
 she was renamed again and again after 
 those of the fair sex on whom monsieur 
 had wrought his most wonderful cures. 
 The alias under which she became defunct 
 was L'alouette, after a favourite songstress, 
 who, to the deploration of the operatic 
 world, unaccountedly lost the power of 
 speech, or as the Figaro had it, ' The 
 sweet tongue, that had spell-bound so 
 many, was itself spell-bound;' which spell 
 was broken by monsieur, who trepanned 
 her skull, and removed the cause of dumb- 
 ness. Young O'Rorke, who was here 
 visiting his sister at the time, scribbled a 
 parody on it, in one of Aimee's rhyme- 
 books : 
 
 " Who cured L'alouette ? 
 
 ( I,' said the Frenchman, 
 
 ' With my bright trepan, 
 
 I cured L'alouette.' 
 
 " But I am afraid I am making your
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 179 
 
 head ache with my chatter," she said, 
 seeing that her listener's brows were 
 drawn as with pain. 
 
 " No, indeed, madame ; when I am not 
 listening to you, I am listening to my 
 thoughts, and they make my heart ache." 
 
 " My dear child, you really must not 
 give way to such misgivings ! What has 
 become of the * grit ' that carried you 
 flying over the Prussians' heads ? It was 
 too bad of them to fire at the balloon ; but, 
 of course, they couldn't see you were a 
 petticoated blockade-flyer, or I guess they 
 would have desisted. Now, if, like Duruof, 
 you had sent down your cartes-de-visite, it 
 would have been something to the pur- 
 pose ! " 
 
 " I am afraid the ' something ' would 
 have ended in smoke," said G-ytha, at- 
 tempting a responsive lightness. 
 
 " Oh, I must not forget to tell you, M. 
 d'Arminges had your balloon taken to M. 
 Flaud's manufactory to be repaired, arid 
 N 2
 
 i So The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 he asked me to suggest to you the advisa- 
 bility in case of your being obliged to 
 return by balloon of making the attempt 
 by night." 
 
 "It was very kind of him to consider 
 me. Certainly it would be wise to avoid 
 the danger of being seen."
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 18 1 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 " But day doth daily draw my sorrows longer, 
 And night doth nightly make griefs strength seem 
 stronger." 
 
 Shakspere 
 
 " I WISH Susanne would curl my hair like 
 maman does. They will be straight 
 before { mamzelle ' sees me, I'm sure they 
 will ! " lamented a little girl, who was 
 standing on tiptoe before a pier-glass, 
 craning her plump little neck in order the 
 better to view the loose raven curls falling 
 down her back. 
 
 The sound of a turning handle made her 
 move away from the glass as quickly and 
 self-conscious as if her years had been 
 trebled; and a shy look stole from her
 
 1 82 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 dark eyes as the door opened, admitting 
 " mamzelle," closely followed by maman. 
 
 "Why, Aimee, am I more formidable 
 up than abed, that you don't come and 
 kiss me ? " asked the former, as she took 
 the fauteuil Madame Raboteau wheeled for 
 her before an American stove. 
 
 " Run and place a footstool for made- 
 moiselle." 
 
 Aimee darted towards the article in 
 request, and seizing it by one of its ears, 
 dragged it to the invalid's feet; and, as 
 she adjusted it, looked up with returning 
 confidence into the pale face she had been 
 accustomed to see mated to a pillow. 
 
 Gytha drew the child to her with her 
 free arm, and pressed a kiss upon the lips 
 that matched in hue the bright cherry 
 ribbon that tied back the dubious curls. 
 
 " Where are Uncle Tom, Henrietta, and 
 Captain Jinks? Won't you introduce 
 them to me?" she requested, and in a 
 minute her lap was an assembly-room for
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 183 
 
 a maimed darkie in striped habiliments the 
 ^vorse for wear ; a comparatively sound- 
 limbed, freshly- attired Jack Tar; and a 
 dainty Parisienne, with a model bonnet 
 perched on her golden chignon. 
 
 By the time they were all introduced 
 Ahnee's tongue was its usual tripping 
 self. 
 
 " Yes, isn't she elegant ! " she exclaimed 
 admiringly, as Gytha praised the appear- 
 ance of the fashionable damsel. " I used 
 to wash her face in milk every morning, 
 but now I can't have any. Martian says 
 it is wasteful; we want every drop to 
 drink. Maman" she called to madame, 
 who had turned her face aside to hide an 
 expression that hovered between vexation 
 and amusement. " Maman, when I was 
 out this morning with Susanne, I saw a 
 little girl give her doll such a beautiful 
 doll, to that big statue with the funny 
 name Stras Strasbourg and the people 
 cheered her, and called her * Une petite
 
 184 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 patriote.' May I give Henrietta, and be 
 called * Une petite patriots,' too, cliere 
 maman ?" 
 
 if What, would you sacrifice poor Hen- 
 rietta ? " said Gytha. 
 
 " Oh, she would like it ! Shall I put 
 her on her pink silk or her blue muslin 
 dress, maman, or do you think she looks 
 best in this ? " doubtfully eyeing the silver- 
 grey costume. 
 
 " We will decide that another time, ma 
 mie" answered Madame Raboteau, using 
 the endearment her husband had been 
 wont to apply to his little daughter. 
 
 " And maman, when we were coming 
 back through the Place de la Concorde, we 
 met such a big crowd, and a lot of soldiers, 
 and some of them had pieces of cardboard 
 in front of them with writing ; Susanne 
 said it was to tell all good citizens to spit 
 on them, but I said it could not be that, 
 because it is very rude to spit. But she 
 said they had been very mechant, and ran
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 185 
 
 away when they were wanted to fight. I 
 asked her where they were taking them, 
 but before she could tell me, a great rough 
 woman turned round and told her not to 
 tell me ; and she pinched my cheek. Oh, 
 her hands did smell so of garlic ! But 
 where were they taking them, maman ? " 
 
 " How can I tell you, my child, I did 
 not see them," answered her mother 
 lightly. But her face turned pale, for 
 she knew full well the poor fellows were 
 going to be shot. And seeing her sudden 
 pallor, Gytha guessed as much. 
 
 " Now, mademoiselle, if you will excuse 
 me, and you, Aimee, promise not to be tire- 
 some, I will go to bonne maman" said 
 Madame Eaboteau, taking up her work- 
 basket. 
 
 " 1 can answer for Aimee," said Gytha, 
 her white fingers toying with the raven 
 curls, to the blended apprehension and 
 complacence of that little damsel. 
 
 Before long, observing certain wistful
 
 1 86 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 glances her little companion cast towards 
 the window, G-ytha proposed that they 
 should go hither and look out. 
 
 Clapping her hands in delighted 
 acquiescence, Aimee ran and arranged the 
 cushions of a lounging-chair facing the 
 window ; and, having satisfied herself that 
 " mamzelle " was comfortable, she perched 
 herself on another. 
 
 There was plenty to see and talk about, 
 for the window overlooked the Tuileries 
 Gardens, now exhibiting all the character- 
 istics of an artillery camp ; huge guns, 
 uniform tents, pickets of horses, and busy 
 knots of soldiers. 
 
 " I wish I could go in the gardens and 
 play again," said Aimee, her blithe voice 
 taking a rueful accent. " I have no one 
 to play with now, not even Derry ; I did 
 cry so, when he went away with Madame 
 d'Arminges." 
 
 " Derry," repeated Gytha, with eager 
 interest.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 187 
 
 " That isn't his proper name, it's 
 Derrick, really. And his uncle, who is 
 called Derrick too, came here last Christ- 
 mas. I did love him dearly, dearly He 
 took me and Derry to such lots of panto- 
 mimes, and he was always buying us jouets 
 and bonbons, and last birthday he sent me 
 a locket, a gold one with a real diamond 
 in it. Oh, it's such a beauty ! And wasn't 
 it comical, mamzelle ? we didn't know for 
 a long time that it opened, till one day 
 when I was looking at it, it flew right open, 
 and there was Uncle Derrick looking out ! 
 He isn't my uncle really, you know, but 
 he told me to call him so. Maman has it 
 put away, but I will run and ask her to let 
 me show it to you ;" and she was starting 
 off with that intention, when " mamzelle " 
 called after her in a strange, sharp voice, 
 
 " No, no, Aimee ; I could not bear to 
 look at it now ! ' ! 
 
 " Oh, mamzelle, are you going to faint ? 
 Shall I call maman ? " said the child,
 
 1 88 The Witch oj Atlas. 
 
 looking with great concern at the pale, 
 pained face of the malade. 
 
 " No, dear, come and sit down again. I 
 shall be better presently." 
 
 Aimee returned reluctantly to her seat, 
 and, with disappointed pout, fixed her 
 eyes on the scene below. 
 
 Leaning back in her chair, Gytha closed 
 her eyes, to give rein to anxious wonder 
 concerning the giver of that locket. If 
 M. d'Arminges could but return, and end 
 this restless suspense that swayed her 
 thoughts by day and her dreams by night ! 
 Only the previous night he had appeared 
 in her dream as one who " sees more devils 
 than vast hell can hold." 
 
 " Oh, look, mamzelle, what a crowd ! 
 They are mobbing such a funny little 
 man. Hark ! they are shouting * Es- 
 
 Being thus called on by her little friend, 
 Gytha looked out on the excited rabble, 
 the attraction of which was an undersized
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 189 
 
 man in Zouave uniform, who was wedged 
 between two stolid agents de police. 
 
 The instant her glance fell on his flat 
 bald head, she started to her feet, and 
 to Aimee's amazement threw open the 
 window, and stepping out on the bal- 
 cony, frantically waved her handkerchief, 
 crying the while, " Thrupp ! Thrupp ! ! 
 Thrupp II!" 
 
 Her gesticulation and outcry quickly 
 effected a general halt. The person whom 
 she addressed looked up joyfully, the 
 agents de police suspiciously, and the 
 crowd expectantly. 
 
 " II n'est pas un espion ; il est mon 
 serviteur ! " she cried excitedly. 
 
 " Tak* care, miss ! Dinna ye trouble 
 yoursel' ; I'se be a' richt," shrilly shouted 
 Thrupp, his guarded little person wrig- 
 gling with alarm, lest his excited advocate 
 should in her eagerness overbalance her- 
 self over the low balcony. 
 
 She was just about to again address his
 
 i go The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 dubious-looking custodians, when her 
 glance fell on a horseman, who had 
 drawn rein on the outskirts of the mob, 
 and to her joy she recognized the chasseur 
 officer who had befriended her on the 
 frontier. 
 
 Saluting her as their eyes met, he 
 dismounted, gave his horse in charge of a 
 soldier, and bidding the agents await his 
 return, entered the hotel. His martial 
 figure had no sooner disappeared within 
 the vestibule than the crowd also lost sight 
 of the crimson-robed one that had leant 
 over the balcony. And again raising the 
 cry, ' Espion ! Espion ! ' they pressed 
 around the suspected one and his guards, 
 who had as much as they could do to keep 
 their ground. They were beginning to 
 cast impatient glances towards the hotel 
 entrance, when the officer reappeared and 
 commanded them to advance, and the mob 
 to fall back, which latter command was 
 set at nought, greatly to the hindrance of
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 191 
 
 the guards. But at length captive and 
 captors reached the steps of the hotel. 
 The chasseur addressed a few words to 
 the officers of the peace in a language 
 unintelligible to Thrupp, but which 
 proved effectual in delivering the Scotch- 
 man from their custody into that of a 
 sleek-looking garqon, who, eyeing him 
 with disfavour, conducted him up the 
 stairs to a certain door and admitted him 
 into an elegant saloon. And there stood 
 Gytha, expectantly and hopefully, yet 
 with a look of dread in her eyes. 
 
 " Oh, Thrupp, what brings you here ? 
 Thank heaven you're safe ! What horrible 
 creatures to mob you like that ! " 
 
 " AYhatil hae dune to deserve it, I dinna 
 ken," said he. Then, looking down on his 
 strange garments, he added, " Maybe it is 
 the gear, but an I could mak' shift wi' it, 
 I dinna see why that riff-raff couldna. 
 They micht hae seen it was a quiet eneugh 
 body in itsel', but it's sma' gumption these
 
 192 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 puir folks are blessed wi'. It was lucky 
 ye saw me, miss, for I doobt I wad e'er 
 hae found ye. I lost my cap, an' the bit 
 of paper wi' the name o' this house, when 
 I was swimming up the river ! " 
 
 "Swimming up the "river! Was 'that 
 how you managed to get in ?" 
 
 " Aye, last night." 
 
 " But have you seen M. d'Arminges 
 where do you come from ? " 
 
 " Frae the bedside o' that ailing gentle- 
 
 man." 
 
 Gytha's heart leapt within her. 
 
 " How is he ? " she asked in a tense 
 undertone. 
 
 " Longing to know how it fares wi' 
 yoursel'. An' that is but puirly, I fear," 
 he said, regarding her sadly, " the flesh 
 frae your banes, an* the blume frae your 
 cheek." 
 
 But even as he regarded her, the pale 
 face bloomed anew, with sudden rush of 
 joyful emotion, a lovely rose-glow that
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 193 
 
 passed away all too quickly ; but the pale- 
 ness it left was not as the paleness it had 
 found. It was as different as ice from snow. 
 
 " He knows then his reason is saved ? " 
 she said, her voice tremulous with joy over 
 that long-prayed-for salvation. 
 
 " Aye, as much as there was o't ! He 
 began to mend as sune as the wee bit o' 
 bane was raised frae his brain. So Dr. 
 d'Arminges told me. I didna get there 
 till the next day." 
 
 " But how was it you went to 
 Chilworth? Did he not telegraph to 
 you?" 
 
 " Telling me how ye were obleeged to 
 bide here, and bidding me go back to 
 Chelsea. Aye, I got it, but misteuk 
 Chelsea for Chilworth, an' started offhand, 
 an' never found oot what a fule I had been 
 till I got there ! "When I told the doctor 
 I was minded to get away to ye somehow, 
 an' how I thoucht to win by the blockade, 
 he said, ' Bide a day or two an' we will 
 
 o
 
 194 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 make the attempt together.' But when we 
 got to London, and went to see his wife 
 and boy, he found the puir bairn very ill, 
 an' like to die in fact. An' so he cudna 
 leave him." 
 
 " No, of course he could not ; I do hope 
 he may be able to save him ! How thank- 
 ful he must feel that he is not here, in 
 ignorance of his danger. And so you 
 came on alone, and made the attempt. It 
 was very, very kind of you to face so much 
 danger, to say nothing of the coldness and 
 wretchedness of it ! " 
 
 " Hoot-toot, that was naething ! An' I 
 had water outside the body o' me, I had 
 whuskey inside. The warst o' it was, I 
 had to leave maist o' my clothing behind 
 me, an' when I gat here there was naething 
 for me but these queer clothes that some 
 sodgers took off a puir chap who had been 
 shot down. It was kin* o' them, but I 
 wad never hae put leg into his red breeks 
 an I had ken'd they wad bring that crowd
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 195 
 
 o } folks aboot me, like a lot o' rampagious 
 cattle." 
 
 " They took you for a spy," said Gytlia, 
 who could scarcely repress a smile at the 
 figure he cut in the wide red " breeks " 
 and jaunty cutaway jacket, displaying 
 linen that was not of the cleanest. 
 
 " A spy ! The deil take them for a 
 pack o' fules ! " he exclaimed, shaking his 
 lithe little body. Then as he met Aimee's 
 wondering gaze, his irritated expression 
 gave place to a smile : " Weel, my dainty 
 dove, an' will ye tell me the name o' 
 ye?" 
 
 " Mademoiselle Aimde Raboteau," she 
 announced with pretty dignity. Then she 
 condescended to -inquire confidentially, 
 " Monsieur Thrupp, how old are you ? " 
 
 " My goodness ! dinna ' Moosoo ' me, 
 little leddy ! Hoo old am I ? Weel, I 
 guess I count six years to your one. An' 
 noo I hae told ye, will ye gie me a kiss 
 frae those bonny lips?" he asked, going 
 o 2
 
 196 TJie Witch of Atlas. 
 
 down on his knees that she might the 
 easier grant the boon. But Aimee shrunk 
 from him in undisguised aversion, her 
 distended eyes fixed on his bald, flat head, 
 beneath whose membraneous surface the 
 convoluted brain could be seen distinctly 
 throbbing. 
 
 " Will-a-wa, I forget what a scarecrow 
 I am ! " he sharply exclaimed, springing to 
 his feet. " Maybe, it was the head o' me, 
 an' nae the breeks, that made them abuse 
 me just noo. Pugh, I wad rather lack the 
 shell nor the kernel ! " he concluded, 
 recovering his usual cheerful alacrity. 
 
 " Thrupp ! You have had breakfast ? " 
 said Gytha, the thought having suddenly 
 struck her, that perhaps he had not. 
 
 " Ne'er a bit ! An' I had my cap I wad 
 hold it to ye for a few coppers but an' I 
 had my cap I shouldna need them ; for I 
 tucked awa' a few gold coins in the lining 
 o't." 
 " Oh, Thrupp, and I have been so 

 
 The Witch of Atlas. 197 
 
 thoughtlessly detaining you here ! " she 
 regretfully exclaimed, putting her hand 
 to her pocket, forgetful that it was her 
 dressing-gown she wore. " Run, dear," 
 she said, turning to Aimee, " and ask 
 maman to give you my purse." 
 
 " An' when I hae had bit an' sop, I will 
 gae an* see aboot the puir Serena, for it 
 is hersel' we will be wanting as sune as ye 
 are hale again." 
 
 " She has already been repaired, thanks 
 to M. d'Arminges ; and now I have 
 you to manage her, I shall be able to 
 return very soon," she replied, with anima- 
 tion. 
 
 " I maunna forget, miss, Maister 
 O'Rorke told me to gie ye his maist kind 
 regards, an' to say as how glad he will be 
 to see ye again." 
 
 "You saw him, then ?" she asked, 
 fingering the ribbon ruche that adorned 
 the front of her gown. 
 
 " Aye, jist afore I come awa'. He maun
 
 198 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 hae gude blade in him, an I am a judge 
 o' looks ! " he averred. 
 
 " Does he suffer much ? " she said, 
 raising her eyes from the ruche, and meet- 
 ing his with an anxious expression. 
 
 " It is the back o' him that pains maist, 
 it is sairly sprained, the doctor told me, 
 though he made light o' it himsel'. He is 
 very vexed aboot your arm, an' sae was the 
 auld leddy. She bid me say she wad hae 
 a room ready for ye, an ye wad like 
 to return an* bide a time wi' her. An' 
 that burly son o' hers wha was standing, 
 by, told me to min' an' gie ye the message, 
 word for word ; an' moreover to be sure 
 an' sen' them word as sune as e'er we get 
 out o' Paris." 
 
 At this point Aimee returned, accom- 
 panied by her mother. The cordial smile 
 the latter bestowed on Gytha's odd-looking 
 visitor, showed that Aimee must have 
 been giving her some account of 
 " Monsieur Thrupp."
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 199 
 
 She insisted on his breakfasting there 
 and then. Consequently in a short space 
 of time, hot rolls, grilled ham and steam- 
 ing coffee, were aromatizing the atmos- 
 phere, and at Madame Raboteau's 
 invitation, Krupp seated himself with 
 alacrity before the plenteous repast. 
 
 " This is na horse, an' na donkey, but 
 a cut frae the ham o' as plump a piggy as 
 e'er grunted ! " was his inward comment, 
 as his sharp white teeth and a piece of 
 the delicately cooked slice came into 
 contact. 
 
 Thanks to Madame Raboteau's fore- 
 thought, before he left the Hotel Wagram 
 he doffed the Zouave uniform and donned a 
 spare suit of one of the gar$ons.
 
 2OO The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 " love, my love ! if I no more should see 
 Thyself, nor on the earth the shadow of thee, 
 Nor image of thine eyes in any spring, 
 How then should sound upon Life's darkening slope, 
 The ground- whirl of the perished leaves of Hope, 
 The wind of Death's imperishable wing ? " 
 
 V. G. Rossetti. 
 
 " I WOULD that son of Anak would give me 
 a little of his company. He would pro- 
 bably bore me ; but ray own company 
 more than bores it palls on me ! " 
 
 At this point in his self-communion 
 Derrick O'Rorke impatiently jerked him- 
 self, which caused acute pain. He then 
 cautiously shifted himself into a different 
 position, and from studying the pattern of 
 the chintz curtain on his right hand fell to 
 studying that on his left.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 201 
 
 " I feel sure Thrupp lias won his way in 
 somehow, or he would have shown up again 
 by this time. Did I but know how he 
 found her ! What if he found her 
 dead." A thin vein-marked hand was 
 pressed to the clammy brow that harboured 
 this grim fear. " I am convinced D'Ar- 
 minges was more anxious about her than 
 he cared to let me see. I hope, for her 
 sake, he will be for getting back to Paris, 
 now that Derry has turned the corner. 
 But of course Fan will do her very utmost 
 to prevent him," and the thin hand 
 wandered over the counterpane, to meet 
 with the sought-for letter. Turning to 
 the second page, the clinic reperused it. 
 
 " I am so thankful to be able to say 
 that darling Derry is out of danger ; but 
 I am no sooner relieved from that anxiety 
 than I have another, Emile says he must 
 return to Paris ! But rather than let him 
 go, I will take something to make me 
 dreadfully ill. I never felt so grateful to
 
 2O2 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 any one as I do to Miss Keppel, though it 
 was for the big Derry, and not for the 
 little one, she faced so many dangers. 
 Fancy, Emile told me that if that horrid 
 bullet had swerved but half an inch it 
 would have severed the main artery, and 
 she would have bled to death ! I do hope 
 there is no fear as yet of her not having 
 sufficient and proper nourishment. How 
 I wish we could hear how she is going on ! 
 That poor little oddity ! I wonder if his 
 aquatic scheme succeeded. I am truly 
 thankful fimile did not go with him, and 
 am determined he shall not follow him. 
 The very thought distracts me. If only 
 this wretched, wretched siege could have 
 been avoided." " If only " groaned 
 O'Rorke, flinging hand and letter at arm's 
 length from him, and staring hard into 
 vacancy, " She would never have made 
 that perilous venture she would not now 
 be enduring Heaven knows what, in that 
 accursed place ! * Sufficient and proper
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 203 
 
 nourishment,' surely she does not lack 
 that ? The doubt will . choke me every 
 time I swallow food ! " He turned his face 
 to the pillow and breathed a prayer 
 insomuch that it was the most sincere 
 desire that had ever wrung his soul 
 for the welfare of her who was to his 
 heart as emotion, to his mind as con- 
 science. 
 
 Again reverting to the letter, he went 
 on with its perusal : " I have this morning 
 received a letter from Aunt Kate, dated 
 the 2nd instant, Buffalo, stating that the 
 Shannon would set sail for home in a few 
 days. They intend putting in at Green- 
 wich, in order to see me and yourself. 
 But probably, sir, you have been already 
 informed of their movements by your 
 fiancee, for convinced of the beneficial 
 effects of a 'billet-doux, I induced j^mile 
 to leave directions at the Temple, that all 
 foreign letters should be forwarded to 
 you." " I would as soon the Shannon
 
 2O4 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 was not going to put in at Greenwich," lie 
 muttered ; " aunt will be swooping down 
 on me for a certainty, and probably 
 Eileen. Well, it behoves me to be grate- 
 ful for the certainty, and delighted at the 
 probability ! " an unpleasant humour 
 gleamed from the deep-set eyes fixed on 
 the corkscrew flourish worthy of Charles 
 Lamb's pen at the close of the lengthy 
 letter. The next minute a sound in the 
 direction of the door attracted his eyes 
 thither, to behold the huge figure of Mark 
 Orde filling the way. 
 
 " How is this where is Widow 
 Tribble ? " he queried, looking round 
 the room as he closed the door behind 
 him. 
 
 " I observed that sleep weighed on her 
 eyelids, so implored her to seek her 
 pillow; whether she has succeeded in 
 finding it, I cannot tell you," replied 
 O'Rorke, eyeing his visitor with languid 
 interest as he came round to the bedside.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 205 
 
 Then perceiving lie held-a sheet of orange- 
 coloured paper in his hand, he asked 
 quickly, " What's that news ? " 
 
 " Yes, and good news, I rejoice to say," 
 replied Orde, thrusting the telegram into 
 the other's open hand. 
 
 "Left Paris with Thrupp, 12.30. a.m. 
 Descended here" a glance at the 
 heading showed "here," to be Villequier 
 " safely 2.25. Start for Dieppe imme- 
 diately. Hope to reach Chilworth this 
 evening." 
 
 " By the saints ! That gives the quietus 
 to our anxiety ! " exclaimed O'Rorke, in 
 a voice unsteady with excess of feeling, 
 as was also the hand holding the swift- 
 sped message that had changed the 
 knell in his heart to a joy-bell. " No 
 more harrowing doubts. She is in the 
 land of the living, and the land of plenty, 
 thank Heaven ! " 
 
 " She has been guarded from many 
 dangers. I have been afraid all along
 
 2o6 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 that she would be obliged to have 
 recourse to that risky balloon," rejoined 
 Orde, his stentorian voice subdued. 
 
 " That manikin of hers deserves a 
 medal for his pluck ! We owe it to 
 him that she is out of Paris. She can- 
 not be equal to the management of the 
 Serena." 
 
 " To think of a delicate woman and a 
 4 manikin ' braving such perils, whilst 
 these strong limbs of mine were lumbering 
 my bed ! " exclaimed Orde, with strong 
 self-disgust. 
 
 "My dear fellow, they would have 
 lumbered her car more than they did your 
 bed ! You need not begrudge them their 
 tonicity," said O'Rorke dryly. "'Hope 
 to reach Chilworth this evening,' ' he 
 repeated, as though by utterance to 
 enhance the pleasure of scanning the 
 delightful words. 
 
 " I hope she is not overtaxing her 
 strength. I shall start for Newhaven to
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 207 
 
 meet her by the 2.50 train," said the 
 other, seating himself sideways on the 
 edge of the bed. 
 
 " My good giant, -you'll capsize me ! " 
 irritably warned the clinic. 
 
 " How's that ! Lost weight in the 
 night ? " said the c giant ' good-humour- 
 edly, as he stood up. " By-the-bye, what 
 sort of a night did you have ? " 
 
 " Tolerably good," was the menda- 
 cious answer, " I shall get Cobhold to 
 sanction my getting up on the strength 
 of it." 
 
 " Get up, man ! Why I thought it was 
 only yesterday he said you would have to 
 lie on your back for at least a week 
 longer ! " 
 
 " Confound my back ! It's abominable 
 being bed-ridden in this fashion." 
 
 " You may be thankful you are not 
 #r<xye-ridden," said Orde seriously. 
 
 "Faith! that confinement would be 
 worse than this ! I hope I may be
 
 208 The Witch of Atlas, 
 
 brimful of days before the All-dreaded 
 Sheriff does indeed serve a capias on me. 
 But an inkling gleamed on me just now, 
 from a remark of Widow Tribble, that it 
 was my reason that was in danger. Was 
 it so?" 
 
 " You were near, dear friend, losing that 
 Pearl of Great Price," was the grave 
 reply. 
 
 " Egad, and so it was to secure the 
 pearl in its setting, that D'Arminges 
 tinkered my brain-pan ! " 
 
 " Yes, and remember it was mercifully 
 preserved to you, to cherish as a divine 
 illumination unto the path of wisdom. 
 See that no breath of the devil tarnish it. 
 See that its light guides you to higher 
 than worldly distinctions. Alas ! how 
 many go down into hell, because it is their 
 chief desire, their grand aim, to rise in this 
 world." 
 
 In mute astonishment, O'Rorke looked 
 up at the stern-browed, fervid-eyed
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 209 
 
 adinonisher towering at his side, who, 
 turning abruptly on his heel, moved 
 towards the fireplace. 
 
 "Why, what fiery fanatic have we here? " 
 mentally exclaimed the invalid, as he 
 watched Orde bend his broad back and 
 throw fresh logs on the glowing pile 
 heaped high on the hearth-stone. " The 
 fire's well enough in all conscience. 
 Possibly he sees a visionary heretic among 
 the flames, and feels he must add a faggot 
 or two,' 5 he thought on, with a whimsical 
 smile. 
 
 But the " fanatic " turning round and 
 coming back to the bed, O'Korke saw that 
 the glowing fervency had faded from the 
 heavily-browed eyes, leaving in them a 
 disturbed expression, instead of their usual 
 quietude. 
 
 " I have some matters I must look to 
 before starting," he said, coming to a halt 
 at the foot of the bed. "I will tell 
 mother you are alone." 
 
 p
 
 210 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 "I beg you will not trouble her ; I am 
 all right," O'Rorke assured him. 
 
 " I shall look in again before I leave," 
 said Orde, looking back as he reached the 
 door. 
 
 " Well, he is a queer one, now as cool 
 as a cucumber, and now as hot as a 
 cayenne-pod ! But I wouldn't mind being 
 in his shoes for the rest of the day 
 provided they are not hobnailed ! " added 
 the ' knight templar ' as he listened to the 
 other's retreating footsteps. " ' Go to New- 
 haven to meet her.' Lucky dog that he 
 can ! He will see the packet nearing and 
 nearing he will see her coming over the 
 gangway, and he will step forward and 
 take her hand in his, where I am sure it 
 will be lost ! Then he will conduct her 
 to the train, and settle her in a cosy 
 corner, and himself in another cosy corner. 
 And I shall be lying here " he groaned 
 in spirit, then his national buoyancy 
 asserting itself, he went on gaily with his
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 211 
 
 prospective reverie. "But I shall see 
 that door" regarding its stolid oaken 
 face " slowly open, and lo ! on the 
 threshold the Witch will stand ! And she 
 will look she will look as she did when 
 she turned round from her bread-and- 
 butter cutting. Alack, I shan't be able to 
 step forward and meet her, or make any 
 obeisance unless I pull my forelock ! 
 But no, I cannot even do that, they have 
 shaven and shorn me so. Confound it ! " 
 putting his hand up to his closely clipped 
 head. " I am glad the bandages are off ; 
 I shall look a little less like a worsted 
 house-breaker. Then then she will come 
 and shake my hand, and my heart to 
 boot ! What will her first words be ? 
 One seems to see her words as much as 
 hear them, they curve her lips into such 
 witchery. I wish these words were in her 
 own writing." And his eyes again rested 
 on the orange-coloured paper, so flimsy in 
 itself, so weighty in its import. " I wish 
 p 2
 
 212 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 I could induce her to give up this aerial 
 jaunting. She will certainly never let me 
 * summer high in heaven ' again." 
 
 The entrance of his mild, placid-looking 
 nurse put an end to his ruminations.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 213 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 " Joy, so true and tender, 
 Dare you not abide ? 
 Will you spread your pinions, 
 Must you leave our side 1 
 
 Adelaide A. Procter . 
 
 THE day was older by ten hours, and the 
 clinic was directing expectant glances 
 towards the door, whose stolid face was 
 now cheerily expressive by reason of 
 playing gleams of firelight. An occasional 
 crackle from the burning logs, together 
 with the clink, clink, of Widow Tribble's 
 knitting-needles, alone broke the silence. 
 
 At last his alert ears detected the tap, 
 tap of heels on the stone passage 
 without. Nearer and nearer they came. 
 There was a pause, then the sound of a
 
 214 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 lifting latch. The door opened slowly, 
 and lo ! there stood the Quakeress ! 
 Then as her tall, erect figure stepped 
 forward, his peering eyes fell on one of 
 supple slightness one whom he had last 
 seen standing motionless in the down- 
 whirling car. His eager vigilance gave 
 place to contentment, as the Witch 
 followed her conductress into the room, 
 and the full blazes of firelight illumined 
 her features, even to the revelation of the 
 little black mole on her chin. 
 
 " Praise be to Him who hath preserved 
 ye to this joyful meeting," said Mrs. 
 Orde, with low and solemn voice. 
 
 " Amen," reverently rejoined a voice, 
 whose soft clearness the invalid so well 
 remembered. Then Grytha came quickly 
 forward, and he saw " the sweet splendour 
 of her smile " shining from her dark eyes, 
 and a hand, that seemed a fair gleaming 
 incarnation of voice and smile, met his 
 outstretched palm.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 215 
 
 " I hoped to find you further on the 
 road to recovery, Mr. O'Korke," she said. 
 
 " Faith, Miss Keppel, you might well 
 expect it, but I am travelling by such 
 absurdly easy stages ! I feel confident I. 
 should get on faster if I took to my legs, 
 instead of remaining in this slow-coach ; 
 but its conductor, one Christopher Cob- 
 hold, won't hear of it." 
 
 " I hope you are not an unruly fare," 
 she responded, as she took the chintz- 
 covered chair Mrs. Orde had drawn to the 
 bed-side before she went over to the fire- 
 place, where she now stood in conference 
 with "Widow Tribble, respecting the in- 
 valid's evening meal. 
 
 " Apropos of the topic yonder," began 
 the invalid, " I have had some awful mis- 
 givings that you were lacking delicacies, 
 while I have been overwhelmed with them," 
 looking at her as he spoke, he was shocked 
 to see how sharpened were the delicate 
 outlines of her features.
 
 2i6 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 " Indeed I have not ! I have lacked 
 neither delicacies nor care. A sister could 
 not have been more kind to me than 
 Madame Raboteau has been. She srnt 
 her regards to you, and best wishes for 
 jour speedy recovery. And Aime'e charged 
 me to tell you to be sure and come 
 again next Christmas." 
 
 " Poor little mortal, I fear Christmas 
 will bring her but few pleasures ! I wish 
 she and her mother were well out of 
 Paris. I had a letter from my sister this 
 morning, saying that Derry is out of 
 danger, and that D'Arminges insists on 
 returning to Paris." 
 
 " Oh, I hope not ! That would indeed 
 mar her joy at her son's recovery." 
 
 " Just so. I sent a telegram to him 
 this afternoon, begging him not to give 
 Fan yet further cause for anxiety," he 
 rejoined with a twinge of consciousness 
 at the thought that his sister's anxiety 
 Tiad been but a secondary consideration.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 217 
 
 " Has the distress made much headway 
 there as yet ? " 
 
 "Yes, among the lower classes it has," 
 she answered sadly. " The poor people 
 look half starved already, but for all that 
 they protest against capitulation." 
 
 " A patriotic starveling is utterly beyond 
 my comprehension," he said, with an 
 incautious shrug that made him wince. 
 Seeing she noted his involuntary expres- 
 sion of pain, he went on quickly, " Un- 
 palatable as humble pie is, I should for 
 my own part infinitely prefer eating it, to 
 starving. So Thrupp contrived to swim 
 the blockade?" 
 
 " That he did ! " she said, smiling, and 
 added an amusing account of his appear- 
 ance and adventures. 
 
 " Fancy that natty little precisian 
 having to wander about in that outlandish 
 gear ! " he laughed, " but I'll be bound 
 he felt fully recompensed for passing 
 through such an ordeal, when he piloted
 
 2 1 8 The Witch of A tlas. 
 
 you in triumph over the heads of the 
 Prussians. I am afraid you must have 
 found the journey very trying," he added 
 solicitously, his eyes on her sling-sup- 
 ported arm. 
 
 " Not at all. Thrupp saw to every- 
 thing. All I had to do was to ' sit and 
 be blowed along, 5 as Captain Potter 
 expressed it." A smile flitted across 
 O'Rorke's lips. 
 
 " And the descent I hope he effected 
 an easy one. Your poor arm [could ill 
 encounter any jolting." 
 
 As she saw and heard the tenderness of 
 look and voice, a sweet hope stole into 
 her heart, there to be infolded in her love's 
 embrace. 
 
 "He was most careful. The Serena 
 came down as gently as a dove," she 
 assured him, a soft warm rose-flush 
 tinting her pale cheek the while. 
 
 " I am very glad to hear that. I lay 
 awake during the time of your perilous
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 219 
 
 journey, all unwitting what cause I had 
 for keeping vigil." 
 
 Her eyes drooped before his impulsive 
 glance, and fell to tracing the veins of the 
 wasted hand lying on the coverlet. 
 
 <c It seems like a blessed dream, your 
 sitting there ! How I have longed to 
 thank you for all you have hazarded and 
 undergone on my account. And now I 
 can find no words " 
 
 " Thanks ! "Whatever thanks are due 
 to me, I owe you twofold ! But I cannot 
 thank, for wanting to censure you ; 
 nor censure, for wanting to thank you. 
 How could you have taken that rash 
 leap ! " 
 
 " Then I hope the one desire will 
 swallow the other, and finally swallow 
 itself, like a pantomimic marvel. But, 
 seriously, I hold myself chargeable with 
 the whole catastrophe. Had I used more 
 persuasion and less force with that luck- 
 less guide-rope, the poor Serena might
 
 220 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 not have given up the ghost so precipi- 
 tately." 
 
 " How horrible it was ! " she said, a 
 sudden pallor, the ghost of her past horror, 
 stealing over her face. 
 
 " You will laugh at me when I tell you 
 I imagined there were numbers of open 
 graves gaping beneath us, which I have 
 since ascertained were veritably hop- 
 bins/" 
 
 " Open graves what an awful delu- 
 sion ! " she said, the tremor in her voice 
 telling him that the ludicrousness of his 
 supposition was lost in its all but tragic 
 congruity. 
 
 " How intensely she feels how intensely 
 she could love ! Perhaps some happy fellow 
 could tell me she does love ! And I have 
 been lying here bewailing my want of 
 liberty to woo, when the chances are I 
 should have failed to win ! " he thought, 
 as he watched the fascinating revelations 
 of the fitful firelight revelations of a pale
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 221 
 
 fair face, from whence looked eyes, 
 glorious with intelligence and feeling. 
 Suddenly a wan light, proceeding from 
 the other end of the room, drew his 
 attention to the fact that Mrs. Orde had 
 lighted a candle, to whose dim flame her 
 snowy cap was the next minute brought 
 in close proximity, in her endeavours to 
 read the label on one of those dose-marked 
 bottles so familiar to his eyes. At last she 
 raised her head and looked across the room. 
 
 " Wilt thou come here and read these 
 directions, Gytha Keppel," she requested, 
 " mine eyes fail me by candlelight." 
 
 Followed by O'Rorke's gaze, Gytha moved 
 away to her side, and read the minute 
 directions, her voice reaching O'Rorke in 
 a vague murmur. 
 
 As she returned and tendered him the 
 potion-glass, he remembered how the 
 lady-witch was want to administer 
 
 " liquors clear and sweet, whose healthful might 
 Could medicine the sick soul to happy sleep."
 
 222 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 But, alas ! he found the dark-coloured 
 mixture anything but " clear and sweet." 
 
 " Mrs. Orde tells me I must say good- 
 night now," she said, placing the promptly 
 emptied glass on a small table close by, 
 and holding out her hand. 
 
 As he held it in his, he expressed a hope 
 that a restful night would wait on the 
 fatiguing day she had spent.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 223 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 DEEEICK O'EOEKE to HENET HAEWOOD, 
 London. 
 
 Chilworth, October 22nd, 1870. 
 
 HAL, But that my back has 
 been flatly opposed to any such proceeding, 
 I should have long since notified the arrival 
 of the news-laden argosy so humanely 
 despatched by you to your 'forlorn and 
 balloon-wrecked brother.' 
 
 " You speak very modestly of your legal 
 debut, but in a few lines I yesterday re- 
 ceived from Bolgor, he announced that 
 General Commendation has espoused your 
 Maiden Speech. May a succession of 
 promising little briefs be the issue thereof !
 
 224 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 I would you could have given me better 
 accounts of poor little Lagarde. I have 
 been wondering if he were still excitedly 
 arguing himself into coughing fits. I could 
 not but fear the last time I saw him, that 
 there was more likelihood of his putting 
 on angelic, than legal vesture. 
 
 " On your apprising me that it was 
 Madame Fanchon who had acquainted you 
 with my adventures and misadventures, I 
 was prepared to find you had imbibed 
 exaggerated notions of them. As to my 
 having been all but impaled on a hop-pole, 
 1 am not in a position to refute ; but as to 
 being dragged miles out to sea by the balloon, 
 that is an assertion which requires to be 
 curtailed by miles; half a cable's length 
 was the extent of its towage, thanks to 
 the smacksman who came to my aid. But 
 for him, I fear it would have gone hard 
 with Miss Keppel as she is known to you 
 the Witch of Atlas, as she is known to 
 me. Yes, mon gaillard, the vision seen by
 
 The Witch of Atlas. . 225 
 
 me, flouted by you, is at last verified beyond 
 doubt. Her own lips have confirmed that 
 she was on that identical mountain that 
 self-same eve ; but whether she vanished 
 within leafy abode of Hamadryad, or 
 liquid bower of Oread, I have not yet 
 discovered. I confess I was not a little 
 surprised at her reappearance on the 
 North Sea, until I remembered how she 
 would sometimes ascend 
 
 ' to those streams of upper air, 
 Which whirl the earth in its diurnal round.' 
 
 " With regard to her untimely descent, 
 I could only conclude that one of those 
 bearded braves of the sidereal world had 
 sighted her eyes from afar, and under the 
 delusion they were fair acquaintances, had 
 straightway darted to greet them, inad- 
 vertently piercing her silken sphere in his 
 precipitancy. 
 
 " ' What bosh ! ' I hear you exclaim. 
 But, my dear fellow, have you not found 
 at times, when your ' bosom's lord sits 
 
 Q
 
 226 The Witch of Alias. 
 
 lightly in hia throne,' his Fool is quick to 
 take advantage, and you will comprehend 
 how lightly sits mine, when I tell you Miss 
 Keppel is no longer amidst the perils and 
 privations of Paris, but safe in this peace- 
 ful vale this peaceful dwelling ! She left 
 the poor Queen City with Pate-in-Peril 
 as you call him 12.30 on the 19th instant, 
 descending at Villequier 2.25, and arrived 
 here at sundown, 
 
 " The foregoing hyphen represents an 
 interruption in the burly form of Mark 
 Orde. His first deed its evil odour even 
 now offendeth my olfactory sense was to 
 thrust his great boots amongst the burning 
 logs, thereby sending one flying unto the 
 sheepskin hearthrug. His next, to send a 
 boxful of bolus pills rolling in every direc- 
 tion over the floor. Whilst he was on all- 
 fours hunting after them, he imparted to me 
 that he was about to take Miss Keppel to 
 the Surrey Hills, to view the prospect there- 
 from. As soon as he had left the room,
 
 The Witch of Atlas, 227 
 
 I took the precaution to throw the labo- 
 riously-recovered pills behind the fire ; 
 returning to my seat just in time to see 
 the Witch and him leave the house together. 
 As I watched his unwieldy ponderosity, I 
 could not but think of the elephant, who 
 was drawn with other ' gaunt and sanguine 
 beasts,' within the irnparadising presence 
 of the Witch. 
 
 " You must wonder how much longer I 
 am going to prick " JEger" but somehow I 
 don't seem to wax strong, despite unlimited 
 draughts of hop-bitters the brewage of 
 my worthy hostess which heretofore I 
 have infinitely preferred to those of Doctor 
 Cobbold ; but the elephant this morning 
 turned the tide of my predilection, by ex- 
 patiating on insects twain, that spoileth 
 the tender vine, viz. the hop-flea and 
 louse ! Confound the fellow ! How shall 
 I ever again enjoy my once favourite glass 
 of B.B.B. ? I wish, at your earliest con- 
 venience, you would send me vols. VII. and 
 Q 2
 
 228 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 XI. of Brougham's Works, and if you 
 sandwich " Shelley" between them, shall 
 be glad, for I am in a literary Sahara 
 excepting religious treatises. The most 
 attractive I could find among the lot Orde 
 brought me, was " Tupper's Philosophy," 
 on which I have been solely existing. I 
 will quote a line from his " Friendship," 
 
 ' Those hours are not lost that are spent in cementing 
 affection,' 
 
 as a hint for you to soon convert ink to 
 that adhesive purpose, and write to your 
 sincere friend, 
 
 "DERRICK O'RORKE." 
 
 MADAME D'ARMINGES to DERRICK O'RORKE, 
 Chil worth. 
 
 Grosvenor Square, October 25th, 1870. 
 
 " MY VERT DEAR BROTHER, To-day has 
 been a most wretched, distressing one. 
 Not only has it brought the separation I 
 have so dreaded and tried to prevent, but
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 229 
 
 trouble from a quarter whence we espe- 
 cially you have been looking only for 
 pleasure. I don't know how to write 
 what will so pain and outrage your feelings, 
 but I have promised aunt to do so. I 
 found her and uncle here, on my return 
 from Dover I would go that far with my 
 dear Emile. I thought aunt looked very 
 pale and worried, but attributed it to con- 
 cern on your behalf, when I heard that 
 Mrs. Cumberland had already acquainted 
 them with your accident. You may 
 imagine my surprise when on my in- 
 quiring for Eileen, aunt burst into tears. 
 My first fear was that she was dead, but 
 aunt's coloured dress reassured me on that 
 point. Then uncle thundered out a story 
 that pained me beyond words, knowing how 
 it would affect you. 
 
 " I don't know whether you have ever 
 heard that when they had made arrange- 
 ments for their voyage to America, uncle's 
 old captain, Baines, was taken ill. So a
 
 230 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 friend of uncle, Captain Wilmott who on 
 the death of his father a short time 
 before, had retired from the navy offered 
 to take command of the Shannon. During 
 the outward voyage, aunt noticed that he 
 and Eileen seemed to find great pleasure 
 in each others company; and asked the 
 latter if she had informed him of her en- 
 gagement to you. Her answer was, ' Oh 
 yes, don't alarm yourself, you dear old 
 fidget, we are only having'a little flirtation.' 
 But at length Captain Wilmott's attentions 
 became so marked, that uncle requested him 
 to discontinue them, adding, that he should 
 not have permitted such, had Eileen been 
 free to accept them. And wound up by say- 
 ingthatperhaps the most satisfactory course 
 would be for Captain Wilrnott to resign 
 his post. To which he replied, that he 
 would do so as soon as uncle had engaged 
 another to fill it. The Shannon was then 
 making for Buffalo. 
 
 On arriving there, uncle engaged private
 
 The Witch oj Atlas. 231 
 
 apartments, thinking that if they went to 
 a hotel, Captain Wilmott might also take 
 up his quarters there. But his precaution 
 was of no avail, for on the following 
 morning, while he and aunt were waiting 
 breakfast for Eileen, there arrived a note 
 from her, saying she had early that morn- 
 ing been married to Captain Wilmott, at 
 St. Paul's, and that they were then staying 
 at the Delaware Hotel, where she hoped 
 they would come and see her before she 
 and her husband started for St. Louis. 
 This uncle decidedly refused to do, and it 
 was some time before he would assent to 
 aunt going. When she at length reached 
 the hotel, it was to find they had just left 
 for the station, where she at once drove, 
 reaching the platform just as the train was 
 on the move. But as it was gliding by, 
 Eileen looked from one of the windows and 
 kissed her hand. 
 
 Her heartlessness deserves nothing more 
 or less than contempt, and that I hope
 
 232 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 will with you outweigh all other feelings. 
 I wish I could go to you instead of writing ; 
 but they tell me darling Derry almost 
 broke his heart this morning, when he 
 found I had left him. 
 
 I have not yet said, dear, how glad I 
 was to see by your letter yesterday, that 
 you are so much better. I do hope you 
 will not let this trouble prey on your 
 mind, but fear you will have too many 
 opportunities of doing so. I wish Miss 
 Keppel had been able to prolong her visit. 
 I must manage to run up to Chelsea and 
 see her before she leaves England. 
 
 I will write to you again as soon as I 
 receive a telegram from iDmile. I scarcely 
 know what to hope respecting his pass* 
 port. I have implored him, in case he 
 should fail to obtain one, not to risk his 
 life by attempting Thrupp's, or any other 
 dangerous expedient, but he would not 
 give me his promise. I do wish arith- 
 mancy could divine when this dreadful siege
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 233 
 
 end. I shall certainly never laugh 
 at its divining power again, since its 
 prophecy of this being a year of disaster 
 to France has been so exactly fulfilled. 
 Aunt and uncle send their love, and desire 
 me to express their regret at the blow you 
 will receive in this letter. They intend 
 remaining here until your answer arrives. 
 With much love and sympathy, 
 
 Your ever affectionate sister, 
 
 FANNY D'AEMINGES. 
 
 The "blow" thus communicated had 
 precisely the opposite effect to that which 
 O'Rorke's sister and friends apprehended. 
 Instead of prostrating the recipient with 
 grief at the lady's perfidy, and kindling a 
 furnace of fury against the successful 
 rival, it roused a feeling of satisfaction 
 and delight quite uncommon in a jilted 
 lover. Instead of preying upon his mind, 
 it removed a load therefrom; and instead 
 of breaking his heart, it severed at once a
 
 234 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 bond that for some considerable period he 
 had contemplated with trouble and per- 
 plexity. In fact, this timely and welcome 
 " blow " seemed to be the one essential 
 remedy, as subsequent events testified, in 
 effecting the invalid's convalescence. The 
 engagement between O'Rorke and Eileen 
 was evidently one in which fancy tied the 
 slack and clumsy knot, whilst love stood 
 idly looking on. 
 
 O'Eorke had not informed Gytha of his 
 engagement ; and Gytha was unaware that 
 anything more serious than a " cousinly 
 attachment " had ever existed between the 
 two, until Madame d'Arminges mentioned 
 to her that the tie was broken, and Eileen 
 was married to Captain Wilmott. 
 
 Before, however, O'Rorke' s returning 
 strength would admit of his return to 
 London, he heard from his sister that 
 Gytha had left England for her home in 
 Algiers. While chafing at the increasing 
 distance that lay between them, he vowed
 
 The Witch o/ Alias. 235 
 
 to himself that not many weeks should 
 elapse before he would again stand at her 
 side. But when sufficiently recovered to 
 carry out his purpose, he was obliged to 
 defer so doing, on account of his sister, 
 who wished him to go with her to France, 
 there to wait the termination of the siege.
 
 236 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 " A lady- witch there lived on Atlas' mountain, 
 Within a cavern by a secret fountain." 
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 SUPINELY stretched under a wayside syca- 
 more's " honied shade," lay a scantily 
 clothed Arab boy, lazily tapping a caffre 
 drum beside him, whilst his dusky eyes 
 as lazily watched the lateen- sails skim- 
 ming over the sunny bright waters of the 
 Mediterranean. His quick ear catching 
 the sound of distant footsteps, he turned 
 his gaze down the road, in the direction 
 whence they came. In the far distance 
 he descried the approaching pedestrian. 
 
 For half a minute he looked intently, 
 then sprang to his feet, and, with no un-
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 237 
 
 skilful hand, began beating the drum, 
 breaking into an Arabic love-song as he 
 neared the European. 
 
 " Catch, then, my dusky drummer," said 
 the latter, as, in response to the boy's 
 importunity, he tossed a silver coin into 
 the air. 
 
 The next minute it was tightly clutched 
 in a swarthy palm, and the musician, 
 having gabbled his thanks, commenced a 
 third stanza, his bare ebon feet keeping 
 pace the while with the well-shod ones of 
 his patron. " No, no, my boy. I've no 
 wish to march to your drum," he said, with 
 gesticulatory repulse. 
 
 Hearing horses' hoofs close behind, the 
 boy was fain to obey the command, and 
 turned in the hope of another chance coin 
 being thrown to him by the rider; which 
 hope was dispelled by a glance up into his 
 face, by no means a strange one to the 
 young Arab. 
 
 " Get out o' the way, ye lazy young
 
 238 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 rascallion ! " bade the horseman, cracking 
 his whip. 
 
 At the sound of his shrill voice, the 
 pedestrian halted and looked round. 
 
 "Hech! Master O'Rorke it is. Wha 
 would hae thought o' seeing yoursel over 
 here in this countree ! "' greeted Thrupp, 
 reining in his horse as he reached the 
 other's side. 
 
 "In whose topography I am not well 
 versed. I was just wondering whether I 
 was rightly folio wing the direction givenme. 
 Am I on the road to the Villa Philoe ? " 
 
 " Ye are on the right road, sir, but 
 ye are going frae the house. Ye should 
 hae turned up that road," he said, 
 wheeling his horse sharply round, and 
 pointing to a distant turning. 
 
 " Aha, I see well, I've not gone far out 
 of my way. I suppose you have just 
 come from there is Miss Keppel at 
 home?" 
 
 " Aye, sir, I left her in the grot na' ten
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 239 
 
 minutes ago. There's an entrance off 
 this road that wad take ye there sooner 
 than t'other. I will gae back so far wi' 
 ye." 
 
 " I can scarcely believe that it is the 
 month of February ! " exclaimed O'Rorke, 
 lifting his hat to let the sea-breeze cool 
 his temples, as he strode along by the side 
 of the horse, a grey Arabian, on whose 
 symmetry and step he admiringly re- 
 marked. 
 
 On reaching the postern-gate, Thrupp 
 said he would go with him to a certain 
 point from which he could direct him to 
 the cave, and, dismounting, he led the 
 horse within, and secured the reins to one 
 of the posts. 
 
 Leaving him with his wet nose buried in 
 the long grass, they plunged into the cool 
 green shade of the abounding maple-trees ; 
 soon turning from the footpath, they 
 threaded their way through a thicket of 
 flowering myrtle, cactus, and rose-laurel.
 
 240 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 Emerging from this fragrant wilderness, 
 they mounted a gentle grassy slope ; and 
 now O'Rorke could see the gleaming walls 
 of the Villa Philoe, surrounded by terraced 
 grounds, beautiful with leafy shade, liquid 
 sparkle, flowery maze, and grassy sweep. 
 
 O'Rorke had never before felt so thank- 
 fully mindful of the fortune his father's 
 professional and speculative successes had 
 accumulated, as now, while viewing the 
 fair possessions of her he hoped to call his 
 wife. 
 
 " Ton's the Serena's ascending-ground, 
 and there her bit housie," broke in 
 Thrupp's voice. 
 
 With much interest O'Rorke looked 
 away at the " bit housie " sheltering the 
 waif of the North Sea, and the marble 
 flagged space from whence she had so 
 often soared to aerial heights. As he 
 pictured the ascent the aspiring white 
 and crimson sphere, the exultant-eyed 
 aeronaut in her car he looked above and
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 241 
 
 around him. There on his right rose the 
 green-clad, white-capped Atlas ; there on 
 his left spread the sail-dotted sea, on 
 which she had gazed from her elevation. 
 
 Once more Thrupp's whip was raised. 
 
 " Ye see that gro'e ye maun ga throu' 
 that, then keep alang by that belt o' palms 
 until you come to the burn, an's ye follow 
 it up the brae, ye will see the mouth o 5 the 
 grot. Do ye think ye will know now, 
 sir?" 
 
 Thanked and assured that his indica- 
 tions were not to be mistaken, he touched 
 his cap and set off at a smart run down 
 the slope ; while O'Korke proceeded to 
 follow his directions, soon reaching the 
 olive grove. 
 
 " I cannot see what flowers are at my feet, 
 Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs," 
 
 he might have said, as he passed beneath 
 their shade-casting density. But instead 
 he muttered with a half-smile, 
 
 R
 
 242 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 " Surely some of the witches' ' loosed 
 and missioned ' odours, must have winged 
 their way hither ! " 
 
 On passing out into the brilliant sun- 
 shine, a splendid great butterfly, lightsome 
 as the air, blue as the sky, crossed his 
 path, pursuing its flight towards a thicket 
 of tall Mediterranean heath, among whose 
 plumy white blossoms he watched its azure 
 beauty disappear. 
 
 Quickening his pace, he followed the 
 guidance of the belt of palms. On his right 
 hand the ground rose in a rocky acclivity, 
 towards a darkly-wooded mountain-spur. 
 And now a silver line, the clue to the 
 
 * 
 
 witch's cave, flashed on his sight. In a 
 few minutes he stood beside the stream 
 
 " Of white and dancing waters all besprent 
 With sand and polished pebbles." 
 
 Its joyous, hurried rush seemed to beat 
 time to his heart's quick pulsations as he 
 approached the rocky heights, where his
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 243 
 
 eye had detected a portal shaded with 
 acacias. 
 
 " "Within a cavern by a secret fountain," 
 
 he repeated. Then with a derisive laugh, 
 " By the powers, I shall be thinking 
 presently it is the original witch that I am 
 in search of, and shall be expecting to find 
 her 
 
 ' Spelling out scrolls of dread antiquity.' 
 
 But what will she be doing, I wonder ? 
 Will she be annoyed at my unceremonious 
 intrusion? " 
 
 His dubious expression gave place to 
 blank disappointment as on reaching the 
 entrance and looking into 
 
 " The deep recesses of her odorous dwelling," 
 he saw no wizard dweller ! The only 
 eyes that met his were those of a snowy 
 owl in a niche of the rocky wall. 
 
 " A snowy creation of the witch," he 
 mused, as he tarried on the threshold. 
 
 Near at hand stood a hammock-chair, a 
 E 2
 
 244 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 rustic combination of unbarked wood and 
 woven grass, over which was thrown a 
 Cyprus scarf which he had last seen 
 folded around her shoulders as she strolled 
 about the prim garden at Chilworth. 
 The glow of a fire in a distant alcove next 
 attracted his gaze. Doubtless from thence 
 came the subtle fragrance that pervaded 
 the air. From the fire, his eyes came back 
 to the littered table a slice from the bole 
 of a cedar-tree and leisurely noted the 
 various articles thereon; a solar micro- 
 scope ; a Phoenician lamp ; an open book ; 
 a his glance changed into a startled gaze 
 half-emptied box of chico cigarros ! 
 
 No longer pleasurably curious, but 
 apprehensively investigative, his eyes con- 
 tinued their examination the shell of a 
 Nautilus Pompilius, its pearly concavity 
 partially filled with a crimson liquid ; a 
 large leaf on which lay a little heap of 
 ashes and some cigarrette ends; a Nile 
 flute, and a box of vestas.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 245 
 
 That was all; but more than enough 
 to destroy O'Rorke's peace of mind. 
 
 Whose recent presence did these things 
 denote? Who had heaped those ashes, 
 and quaffed from that oceanic goblet? 
 Who had occupied the second of the two 
 chairs ? 
 
 With an abruptness that caused the owl 
 to flutter and hoot, he strode within and 
 caught up the volume, whose open pages 
 showed Spanish poetry. Waiting not to 
 acquaint himself with its title, he turned 
 to the fly-leaf: 
 
 "From Gytha to her beloved Gio\" 
 
 Long and bitterly he looked at the in- 
 scription death-warrant of his hopes 
 conceiving to his own misery and self- 
 derision the happiness, the triumph, these 
 words held for another for " her beloved 
 GioV 
 
 " Tuwhoo ! " cried the owl, " Tu- 
 whoo o o ! " 
 
 Hurling an imprecation at the bird, he
 
 246 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 laid down the book and turned to leave 
 the cave ; his love's instinct urging him to 
 hasten from the torture of clasping the 
 hand that had penned those words of 
 meeting the eyes that had reflected their 
 tender import. But suddenly he halted, re- 
 membering Thrupp, and the improbability 
 of her remaining in ignorance of his visit 
 hither. "Well, since I must see her, it 
 shall be at the Villa anywhere rather than 
 here." 
 
 He had taken but a pace, when again 
 he halted. 
 
 She stood in the entrance. 
 
 As she stood, with the light behind her, 
 he could not clearly see her face, which 
 was moreover shaded by a palmetto hat. 
 Gathered in one arm she held a mass of 
 scarlet-flowered pimpernel, which here and 
 there escaped its confine, and trailed down 
 the pale amber-coloured dress, that fell in 
 soft folds about her motionless figure. 
 
 " You ! " how her naive exclamation
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 247 
 
 thrilled him. " This is a pleasant surprise. 
 I wondered who Fatima could be hooting 
 at so angrily," and once again her hand 
 met his. 
 
 " I hope you will not, like her, resent 
 this intrusion. I met Thrupp on the road, 
 and he said you were in the grot ; 
 whither he was good enough to direct me." 
 
 " Then you have not been to the house 
 but do sit down, Mr. O'Rorke," she 
 broke off, as she noticed his pallor. And 
 motioning him to the chair by the table, 
 she seated herself in the one whereon hung 
 the scarf; " I have been so anxious for a 
 letter from your sister ; but doubtless you 
 come from Paris, as she told me in her 
 last letter you were going to accompany 
 her to the environs, in readiness to enter 
 as soon as the siege was over." 
 
 " Yes, we were there full three weeks 
 waiting. I feared Fan whould fret herself 
 into a fever." 
 
 " The delay must have been most trying
 
 248 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 to her ! And how did you find M. 
 d'Arminges ? " 
 
 " Still in the flesh what there was left 
 of it ! He struck me as looking years 
 older and inches taller than when I last 
 saw him," he answered, wishing he could 
 keep his thoughts from the obnoxious 
 cigarettes at his elbow. 
 
 " He did not of course know you were 
 coming ? " 
 
 " No, we went straight to the Ambulance 
 Internationale, where we found him help- 
 ing to administer nourishment to the poor 
 fellows. As soon as Fan had recovered 
 from her burst of tears at the first sight 
 of him, she was for plying him with some 
 of the creature comforts from the ample 
 basket we had brought with us. But he 
 assured her he had already appeased his 
 cravings, and begged her to hasten to 
 Madame Raboteau. I guessed he was 
 anxious to get her out of the infected air, 
 but she straightway concluded that her
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 249 
 
 friend was on the point of starvation, so 
 away we went to the Hotel Wagram, 
 Fanny hugging a parcel of candles, for, as 
 you doubtless know, the Parisians had sat 
 in darkness and I carrying the ample 
 basket, feeling uncommonly like a Cockney 
 mechanic bound for a day's outing with 
 his missis. We were glad to find, on 
 arriving there, that Mr. Washbourne had 
 been beforehand with us in supplying her 
 immediate wants. Aimee gleefully apprised 
 me of the fact that they had just had some 
 real beef, and ivhite bread for dinner. 
 Whereupon I told her to search in my 
 pockets for her dessert ; and on finding it 
 in the form of bonbons, she declared she 
 had not had a bonbon for years not since 
 Mamzelle Keppel gave her a box." 
 
 " Poor little dear ! And where was 
 Derry ? did he go with you ? " she asked, 
 thinking of the anxious time when Aimee 
 had first talked to her of him. 
 
 " No, his mother feared he might incur
 
 250 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 infection at the Ambulance. I told Aimee, 
 thinking to please her, that she would see 
 him the next day, but to my astonishment 
 she burst out crying. At length I drew 
 from her, that Delie the cat he had asked 
 her to take care of had strayed away 
 one morning, and never returned ! And 
 Susanne had told her that Delie had been 
 killed and eaten, like the performing 
 elephant, and the swans they used to feed 
 with biscuits, and the donkeys they used 
 to ride." 
 
 " Isn't it horrible to think of ! And 
 madame, how was she ? " 
 
 "Well, she was up and about, but a 
 woman of less ' grit ' would have taken to 
 her bed. And I think she would not have 
 been able to hold out much longer. She 
 said she had been so hopeful back in 
 November, when D'Arminges told her 
 General Trochu had received a pigeon- 
 telegram from Gambetta, proposing that 
 the Loire and Paris armies should join
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 251 
 
 forces. But when, after all its opening 
 promises, the great sortie came to nought, 
 she lost heart altogether, not so much on 
 her own account as her mother's, whose 
 life, she knew, depended on the nourish- 
 ment that was becoming unprocurable." 
 
 "Poor Madame what an agony of 
 anxiety she must have suffered ! How 
 is the old lady ? " 
 
 " I am sorry to say she died about a 
 week before the capitulation ! " 
 
 " Oh not from privation ? " 
 
 " Yes, that's what it was ; the food they 
 managed to exist on was not of a quality 
 to sustain her." 
 
 Gytha was silent. The thought of her 
 warm-hearted garde-malade helplessly 
 watching the poor old sufferer sink lower 
 and lower as the weary days dragged by, 
 pained her beyond words. 
 
 He saw the tears slowly roll from 
 beneath her drooping eyelids ; and seeing, 
 longed to kiss them away. But that
 
 252 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 privilege was another's, he himself must 
 suffer them to roll down her cheeks, and 
 drop like scalding lead on his heart. 
 
 Suddenly she looked up, her eyes to 
 his surprise flashing indignation through 
 their liquid grief. 
 
 " That General d'Aurelles deserves as 
 severe a fate as any deserter ! " she 
 exclaimed bitterly. 
 
 "It's most maddening to think of the 
 splendid opportunity he so obstinately 
 threw away." 
 
 " Is your sister remaining in Paris ? " 
 
 " Yes, at their old quarters, the Hotel 
 AVagram." 
 
 " Then Madame Raboteau will not want 
 for a friend." 
 
 He was about to make a reply, when a 
 shadow fell across, and a whiff of smoke 
 floated by the entrance. The next 
 moment the smoker appeared. But lo, a 
 smoker wearing looped black skirts, and 
 an elegantly disposed mantilla ! Removing
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 253 
 
 the cigarette from her lips, she was 
 beginning in a voice of indolent annoy- 
 ance, 
 
 " Would you believe it, cara mia, that 
 lovely azalea " when her eyes fell on 
 O'Rorke, in the act of rising. 
 
 " This is Mr. O'Rorke, Gio'," said Gytha; 
 then, glancing at him, " My friend, Mrs. 
 Meredith." 
 
 " Mr. O'Rorke ! This is a pleasure I have 
 greatly wished for," she said graciously. 
 
 " I feel honoured, madame," he said, in- 
 wardly execrating his own credulity, and 
 the lady's masculine fancy, " this is your 
 seat, I think," he added, stepping aside for 
 her to pass to it. 
 
 " Thanks. Then will you take that 
 camp-stool?" she said, with a graceful 
 wave of her hand towards the stool, folded 
 against the wall. Then sinking into the 
 grass hammock, she listened sympathe- 
 tically whilst Gytha told her of Madame 
 Raboteau's bereavement.
 
 254 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 " And how is the capital looking, Mr. 
 O'Rorke ? " 
 
 Thus recalled from his reflections on the 
 discovery that had revolutionized his feel- 
 ings to their former hopefulness, he raised 
 his eyes from the halfa matting to her 
 dark and still handsome face. 
 
 " In the outskirts, as desolate as gutted 
 houses, ddbris-heaped streets, and knots 
 of homeless excavators, seeking their 
 goods and chatties, can render it. But in 
 the interior, lively with bevies of sight- 
 seeking grisettes, and swarms of uniformed 
 and bloused ' patriots.' I should not be 
 surprised if there be a renewal of the 
 October and January riots." 
 
 " Dear me ! they are belligerent, then, 
 rather than subdued. I have been pictur- 
 ing them going about as sad-faced and 
 clothed as the Sevillans in Lent." 
 
 " Oh, there is no scarcity of sad faces 
 and the gay and sad alike of the Pari- 
 siennes have put on mourning. That is
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 255 
 
 the most striking reminder of the National 
 calamity, even the very statues are crape- 
 masked. To my eyes, they look like so 
 many disguised burglars," he said, watch- 
 ing, as he spoke, the Witch's white fingers 
 despoiling the trailing pimpernel stems of 
 their leaves, which she dropped into a 
 basket beside her. 
 
 A coloured youth now made his appear- 
 ance, and in broken English informed 
 Gytha that Pompey awaited her without. 
 
 " Pompey oh, I had forgotten!" she 
 paused ; then looking from the boy to 
 O'Rorke, she told him she had promised to 
 visit the ailing wife of a vine-dresser, who 
 lived up on the mountain. 
 
 " I should be glad to accompany you as 
 far," he said impulsively. 
 
 " But it is a long way, you will be tired. 
 I would offer you another donkey, but 
 we have only side-saddles." 
 
 On his assuring her he should much 
 prefer walking, and declaring himself
 
 256 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 equal to any amount of that exercise, it 
 was settled that he should accompany 
 her. 
 
 Rising from her chair, G-ytha brushed 
 away the scarlet petals clinging to her 
 dress. 
 
 " The jar is in there, Usimone ; the one 
 nearest this end," she said to the boy, 
 whose supple figure O'Rorke's eyes fol- 
 lowed to the indicated recess, where on a 
 block of stone, several jars were ranged. 
 
 "That is Gytha's medicine-chest," 
 smilingly said the elder lady, "she is very 
 wise in herbal virtues and decoctions that 
 is a syrup of her preparation," inclin- 
 ing her head towards the shell. " And then 
 there is the Enigma Brand, as I call it, 
 for whoever drinks of it must first solve 
 my riddle. My first, is a herb that 
 breathes of a maiden ; my second, a 
 blossom, sacred to Hymen ; my third, the 
 tears of a crushed reed ; and my whole, a 
 syrup you must name."
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 257 
 
 '* But perhaps I have never heard the 
 name ! " 
 
 " I fancy you must have, it is a French 
 beverage." 
 
 " I am afraid I shall never taste it," 
 said he, with a laugh, after a few minutes' 
 consideration. But the words had scarcely 
 left his lips, when he exclaimed, " Capil- 
 laire ! " 
 
 She laughed assent; and Gytha fetched 
 an amethyst drinking-cup, and a glass jar 
 from the recess. Having filled the former, 
 she handed it to him with the smiling 
 remark, " I am sure you will not think 
 the syrup so good as the riddle." 
 
 " Indeed it completely fulfils the 
 enigma's sweet suggestions," he averred, 
 on tasting the luscious drink. 
 
 " We dine at seven, Mr. O'Rorke. I 
 hope you will give us the pleasure of your 
 company," said Mrs. Meredith, when he 
 took up his hat. 
 
 With an inward wonder as to whether 
 
 s
 
 258 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 it would prolong a felicitous, or an em- 
 barrassing companionship, he accepted her 
 invitation, and followed Gytha to a spot 
 where Usimone was standing beside a 
 shapely Egyptian donkey, whose bright 
 eyes and forward bent ears, eloquently ex- 
 pressed his pleasure at the approach of his 
 mistress. 
 
 " I would have put off going until to- 
 morrow," said Gytha as O'JRorke reached 
 her side, " but I promised the poor woman 
 or rather girl, for she is only sixteen 
 that I would take her some more pimpernel 
 decoction this afternoon; for, between 
 pain and anxiety, she cannot sleep without 
 the aid of a narcotic. She fears her 
 husband has destroyed himself, under the 
 impression that he had killed her. In a 
 fit of jealousy he struck her with his prun- 
 ing knife, and then rushed from the hut ; 
 that was four days ago, and he has not 
 been heard of since.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 259 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 " Her soft smiles shone afar, 
 And her low voice was heard like love." 
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 " YEK, yek ! " cried Usimone, as soon as she 
 had mounted, and Pompey set off at a 
 gentle pace, O'Rorke keeping at his side. 
 
 Before long the beaten track sharply 
 rounded the spur, and after the interven- 
 tion of a gate, continued up a pass, the 
 sheer-rising, shrub-tufted walls of which 
 cast 
 
 " Darkness and odours and a pleasure hid 
 In melancholy gloom." 
 
 "Kather a contraction of the celestial 
 view we once commanded," said O'Rorke, 
 glancing up at the rift of blue, scarcely 
 s 2
 
 260 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 more than enough to define the shrubs 
 projecting near the summit of the rocks. 
 " What a glorious flight that was ! Times 
 out of number I have fallen asleep to 
 literally ' dream visions of aerial joy.' 
 Alas ! the bathos, to wake and find the 
 billowy cloud-layer reduced to a billowy 
 counterpane ! Have you made any captive 
 ascents since your return here ? " 
 
 " Not until a fortnight since, when I 
 made a little series, for the Serena re- 
 mained inflated four days." 
 
 " I have been glad to think that captive 
 assents were all you would venture on here, 
 else I should have been continually fearing 
 you were in some perilous extremity," 
 for the first time he voluntarily let his 
 tone express somewhat of his feelings. 
 
 The dark eyes looking up the pass filled 
 with a lovely light, that seemed to have 
 its dawn on the clear cheek he glanced at. 
 
 " Yek, yek, yek ! " again shrilly sounded 
 from behind, and again poor Pompey started
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 261 
 
 into a trot, whose briskness Gytha was 
 obliged to moderate out of consideration 
 for her companion. 
 
 Looking round, she saw him speaking 
 to Usimone. " I have been telling that 
 young whipper-in, that if Pompey is 
 inclined to be stubborn again, I will give 
 him ' sweet mouth,' " he said, smiling, as 
 he came to her side. 
 
 " Which I can assure you he knows how 
 to appreciate," she responded, stroking 
 the glossy neck of the animal, whose 
 clattering hoofs awoke echo upon echo 
 echoes that became fainter and fainter as 
 the sterile walls gradually receded, until the 
 pass widened into a wooded glen, open to 
 the. golden light of the westering sun. 
 From the glen they mounted to a grassy 
 tableland, overlooking a wheat-feathered 
 basin, that lay shut in by mountains, 
 varied with green growth, grey crags, pur- 
 ple recesses, and snow-gleaming pinnacles. 
 
 " How attached you must be to theso
 
 262 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 valleys and mountains ! " lie exclaimed, 
 after a few moments' silent survey. 
 
 "I am indeed! They bold lifelong 
 associations for me/' 
 
 " Lifelong ? " he repeated, in a tone of 
 surprise. 
 
 " Yes, I'm an Algerine by birth. I was 
 born the very first winter my father spent 
 here. It was my poor mother's first and 
 last. My only idea of her is drawn from 
 this miniature," she added, unclasping from 
 her neck a slight gold chain, and opening 
 the attached locket, she gave it with the 
 necklet, into his hand. 
 
 It was a face of blonde loveliness, high- 
 bred imperiousness, on which his eyes fell. 
 The only similarity in the portrayed 
 features and those whose every curve and 
 line were so impressed on his mind, was the 
 mouth ; there was the same sweeping arch 
 of the upper lip, the same slight indenta- 
 tion of the nether. Enshrined in the 
 back of the locket was finely braided
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 263 
 
 hair of the same fairness as the pictured 
 tresses. 
 
 " This is indeed, ' silent, penetrative 
 loveliness,' " he quoted aloud, as he gazed. 
 " But I did not expect to see a blonde," 
 he added, looking up at her. 
 
 " Because I am dark while she fully 
 confirmed her Saxon descent." 
 
 " Ah ! then that accounts for your Saxon 
 name Gytha." Then wondering at his 
 boldness in pronouncing it, he went on 
 quickly, " How much we owe to the 
 limner's art ! You must value this 
 greatly ! " returning it to her. 
 
 Pompey was now slowly following the 
 bridle-path scraped out of the mountain 
 side. The roar of falling water had for 
 some time past prepared O'Rorke for the 
 vision of beauty that the track's curvature 
 now disclosed, to wit, one of those 
 
 " Earthquaking cataracts which shiver 
 Their snow-like waters into golden air." 
 
 Halting at O'Rorke's request, she
 
 264 Tlie Witch of Atlas. 
 
 watched with him the shimmering waters 
 dashing from a ledge of rocks, high on the 
 opposite mountain, down into the bosky 
 ravine. The last time she had solitarily 
 tarried there, how keenly had her love- 
 conscious spirit " felt itself alone." 
 Then her thoughts had brooded on a remark 
 made by Madame d'Arminges in speaking 
 of her brother's broken engagement. " I 
 believe, though, judging from his letter, 
 he doesn't feel it so keenly as I feared. I 
 suppose it was a case of mere love-in- 
 idleness with them both." And now that 
 expression recurred to her mind, bringing 
 with it a discordant doubt. Was the love 
 that had swayed his voice and impassioned 
 his glance, mere love-in-idleness ? 
 
 As he watched the glancing waters, a 
 doubt begotten of the knowledge that 
 his sister had made such a remark was 
 also harassing his mind. Would he be 
 able to convince her, that until her voice 
 and smile had quickened his heart into
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 265 
 
 Love's glorious life, Fancy had been its 
 deepest emotion ? 
 
 "Water, big jump, big roar say?" 
 impatiently said Usimone, pausing in his 
 exuberant skipping and looking at 
 O'Rorke with round eyes of surprise at 
 his silence. 
 
 " I fear Usimone thinks me sadly want- 
 ing in demonstration," said O'Rorke, 
 turning with a dry smile to his mounted 
 companion. " But, in faith, admiration 
 closes my lips ! How often the beauty of 
 this will flash upon my * inward eye ' in 
 time to come ! " 
 
 " In time to come ! " The words fell with 
 an ominous chill on her heart, as an 
 answer to its doubts of a minute since. 
 And, making no answer, she shook her 
 bridle. 
 
 A little further on, the path, rounding 
 the shoulder of the mountain, brought 
 them in sight of another cultivated valley. 
 
 The first feature that attracted O'Rorke's
 
 266 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 eyes was the opposite ridge the ridge 
 over which he had watched the fair cres- 
 cent rise. But where was the sombre 
 mantle of the " Witch Mountain " as he 
 had called it ? it was but very shreds and 
 patches of vegetation that she now wore. 
 " Surely a Cypress forest used to cover 
 that mountain ? " he said, turning to 
 Gytha. 
 
 " Yes, it did, but it was destroyed by 
 fire three years ago. Gio' and I came 
 here and watched it burning. It was a 
 grand sight. The whole mountain was 
 one sheet of flame ? every stone and shrub 
 in the valley were as visible as by daylight. 
 I wish" 
 
 " Senorita ! " The voice came from 
 above, and, looking up the slope, they saw 
 a swarthy peasant, crouching among the 
 shrubs, looking down on them with eager, 
 black eyes. 
 
 " Ramiro ! " exclaimed Gytha, halting. 
 
 " For the blessed Virgin's sake, tell me
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 267 
 
 Martina, is she alive? " lie said in his 
 native Spanish language. 
 
 " Yes, and fast recovering ; I am on my 
 way to her now." 
 
 " May your lips sing in paradise ! " 
 he ejaculated, and bowed his working face 
 in his hand. 
 
 " And now, Ramiro, you will come with 
 me to Martina," she said in a voice that 
 blended " gentleness and power " into 
 supple persuasion. Lifting his bowed 
 head, the man looked down on her with 
 eyes of intense wistfulness. The next 
 moment he shook his head dejectedly- 
 
 " She would repel me with curses." 
 
 " Nay, she will receive you with glad- 
 ness," she said with decision. 
 
 " I will go with you I will show her 
 my heart." So saying, he slid down the 
 slope, and preceded Pompey up the steep, 
 narrow track, now winding towards where 
 vineyards displayed their bright green 
 foliage. Before they reached these, how-
 
 268 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 ever, the man halted, and Gytha checked 
 the donkey, telling O'Rorke that she must 
 now proceed on foot. 
 
 Ramiro having at her request taken the 
 jar and basket from Usimone whom they 
 left to look after Pompey they mounted 
 the olive-grown slope. On gaining a 
 plateau where stood a thatched hut, 
 she told Ramiro she would go in first, 
 and tell Martina that he was waiting 
 without. 
 
 Seeing the man was absorbed in sus- 
 pense, O'Rorke strolled to the edge of the 
 plateau, and looked down on the valley of 
 corn. The moon, that, when they started, 
 had looked like a fragment of white cloud 
 in the sunny sky, now seemed silverised 
 into a luminous power, as the daylight 
 rapidly faded. 
 
 He was lost in recalling every tone and 
 expression that had varied her voice and 
 face during her ride hither, when her low 
 voice fell on his ear.
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 269 
 
 " We can return now." And turning, 
 he saw her approaching, her dark eyes 
 softly radiant. 
 
 " So the breach is healed they are 
 united again," he said, as they began to 
 descend the root-matted, olive-shaded 
 slope. 
 
 " Yes, I am so glad, for poor little 
 Martina's sake. I found her in utter 
 despair her rosary had broken, while she 
 was repeating aves on his behalf, and she 
 regarded it as an ill omen." 
 
 " Then I suspect she was not sorry to 
 have her superstition shaken what light 
 is that ? " he broke off, as he was passing 
 an aged tree, in whose hollow trunk shone 
 a pale green luminosity. " Ah ! I see the 
 jewels some fair hamadryad has left here," 
 he added, as on looking more closely he 
 saw the light arose from a constellation of 
 luminous beetles. And stooping over the 
 decayed cavity, he gently raised one of the 
 brilliant "jewels" from its mossy casket,
 
 270 The Witch of Atlas. 
 
 and, bending on one knee, placed it in the 
 buckle of her dainty shoe. 
 
 " That is too precarious a setting,'- she 
 said with a smile, and, stooping, took the 
 firefly in her hand, and dropped it into 
 a fold of her Cyprus scarf, from whose 
 transparent darkness it scintillated starry 
 rays. 
 
 " Did the nymph but know jewel of 
 hers adorns her much -loved Witch I " he 
 exclaimed, highly pleased that she had 
 exalted his lowly adornment to her 
 heart. Would she but so receive his 
 petition ! 
 
 Meeting the wondering look she bent 
 on him, he went on impetuously, 
 
 " The Witch of Atlas the Witch of 
 love and power ! Let that power verify 
 the sweet visions that have gladdened my 
 heart visions wherein we have stood 
 as now we stand, only that this hand of 
 mine held yours, the hand of my love my 
 promised wife."
 
 The Witch of Atlas. 271 
 
 The next moment his waiting palm held 
 her soft, pulsating hand, and with tender 
 elation his lips sealed, and thrice sealed, 
 the fair pledge. 
 
 THE END.
 
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 List of Publications. 15 
 
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 List of Publications. 17 
 
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 List of Publications. \ 9 
 
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 KINGSTON. 
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 20 Sampson Low, Man ton, e Ci>.'s 
 
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 List of Publications. 21 
 
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