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She could scarcely believe that it was she, Elsie Maxwell, who stood

there on the tremulous island of the ship amidst a stormy ocean the

like of which she had never seen before She seemed to possess an

entity apart from herself, to be a passive witness of events as in a

dream; presently, she would awake and find that she was back in her

pleasant room at the Morrisons' hacienda, or tucked up in her own

comfortable cabin Yet here was proof positive that the terror which

environed her was real Bound up with the thunder of the gale were the

words, "Your loving sister, Madge"--evidently the sister Captain

Courtenay had spoken of--"matron of a hospital in the suburbs of

London," he said Would he ever see her again? Or his ht of woe? Beneath his iron ony, and palsied fear--surely a h he enduredin the least what she was doing, she scrutinized

the closely tied packet She wondered idly why he treasured so h, ritten on differently

sized and variously colored note-paper And it could be seen at a

glance that they were from as many different people The outside

letter was the most clearly visible Miss Courtenay wrote a