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At last he stooped and gave his hand to soed froain, Miss Baring," he said gruffly "And you, Mrs

Soht you'd gone

under, an' good folks are scarce enough as it is"

It was a wan and broken-spirited Isobel who her wretched state, her eyes quickly took in the

orderly condition of the room

"I left my clothes strewed all over the floor," she said, with a

nervousness which Elsie attributed to the hardships she had undergone

"Why did you trouble to pack them away?"

Then Elsie told her of her hunt for the poudrière, and was so obviously

unconcerned about any incident other than the adventures they had both

experienced since they parted, that Isobel questioned her no further

A bath and a change of clothing worked h thin and weak

for want of proper food, neither Isobel nor Mrs Somerville had

suffered in health from the exposure and short fare involved by life on

the island It was broad daylight ere they could be persuaded to

retire to rest, there was sobetween Tollemache and Gray was full of racial

subtleties

Tollerasp Gray's hand, felt it was

incumbent on him to utter the first word

"Had a pretty rotten time of it, I expect?" said he

"Poisonous And you?"

"Oh, fair Beastly close squeak when you turned up"

Gray became more explicit when Courtenay met him in the chart-roolasses and a

couple of bottles of chauards cast off from the ship," he said, "we scudded

away in a sort of ocean mill-race which threatened to upset us at any