"_Au revoir_, Madame." He saw her hurried into the launch, which
immediately got under way, its exhaust snorting furiously, and
vanished around the point of rocks. In a moment there was nothing
left of his visitors to Markham but the lapping of the waves from the
launch upon the beach and the spot in the air which was not almost
imperceptible.

He stood there until he could see it no more, when he turned and took
his pipe thoughtfully from his trousers pocket and addressed it with
conviction.

"Mad!" he muttered. "All--quite mad!"


CHAPTER VII

"WAKE ROBIN"

Markham climbed the hill slowly, pushing tobacco into his pipe. Once
or twice he stopped and turned, looking out over the bay toward the
distant launch. The a‘roplane had vanished. When he reached the
bungalow he dropped into a chair, his gaze on space, and smoked
silently for many minutes.

Mad! Were they? Madness after all was merely a matter of relative
mental attitudes. Doubtless he was as mad in the eyes of his visitors
as they were to him. In his present mood he was almost ready to admit
that the sanest philosophy of life was that which brought the greatest
happiness. And sanity such as his own was only a sober kind of