explosive condition of her crew; she had no mistaken ideas that for her to load up the schooner and sail away was simple. Further, she detected in recent events a growing unrest among the band, the cause of which she had but begun to fathom. Even now, through the tapestry sounding-stone, her keenly attuned ears caught a note in the cries of returning woods parties that told her how precarious was her sway over some of the more turbulent spirits.

“Before me they cringe like the dogs they are,” she muttered, halting again at the mirror. “Behind my back they snap like wolves. They shall have their lesson quickly — such a one as the boldest of them shall shriek mercy.” She gazed intently into the mirror, as if she would read therein an answer to her unspoken longing; then her eyes grew dark and