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Days ran into weeks, and still the two ree Byrne found first one excuse and then another to delay the march to the sea He knew that it must be made sooner or later, and he knew, too, that its co of the end of his association with Miss Harding, and that after that was ended life would be a dreary waste

Either they would be picked up by a passing vessel or murdered by the natives, but in the latter event his separation from the woman he loved would be no more certain or absolute than in her return to her own people, for Billy Byrne knew that he "didn't belong" in any society that knew Miss Barbara Harding, and he feared that once they had regained civilization there would be a return on the girl's part to the old haughty aloofness, and that again he would be to her only a creature of a lower order, such as she and her kind addressed with a patronizing air as, "my man"

He intended, of course, to make every possible atte to snatch a few golden hours of happiness in return for his service, and as partial recompense for the lifetime of lonely misery that must be his when the woht not, and so he tarried on upon "Manhattan Island," as Barbara had christened it, and he lived in the second finest residence in town upon the opposite side of "Riverside Drive" fro

Nearly two months had passed before Billy's stock of excuses and delay ran out, and a definite date was set for the co had said, "that you do not wish to be rescued at all Most of your reasons for postponing the trip have been trivial and ridiculous--possibly you are afraid of the dangers that ly

"I'rin "I don't want to be rescued, and I am very oing to lose you, any way you look at it, and-- and--oh, can't you see that I love you?" he blurted out, despite all his good intentions

Barbara Harding looked at hi that could have hurt hihed