midnight
I saw it rise and curve in one long , sparkling arch of flame , then fall with a dropping line of fire down into the billows . A splash -- a jet of light , and it was gone : -- gone perhaps to hide amid the rotting timbers of what was once the _ Belle Fortune _ , or among the bones of her drowned crew to watch with its blood-red tireless eye the extremity of its handiwork . There , for aught I know , it lies to-day , and there , for aught I care , beneath the waters it shall treasure its infernal loveliness for ever . Into its red heart I have looked once , and this was what I read : -- of treachery , lust and rapine ; of battle and murder and sudden death ; of midnight outcries , and poison in the guest-cup ; of a curse that said , `` Even as the Heart of the Ruby is Blood and its Eyes a Flaming Fire , so shall it be for them that would possess it : Fire shall be their portion , and Blood their inheritance for ever . '' Of that quest and that curse we were the two survivors . And what were we , that night , as we stood upon the sands with that last hellish glitter still dancing in our eyes ? The one , a lonely and broken man ; the other -- I turned to look at Colliver .