Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-03-20
By LOUIS TRACY,

mured, great content soothing her heart and brain at her lovers admis- sion that he was thinking of her dur ing the worst agony of the fray. He gave her reassuring hug.
 With her soul singing canticle of toy, she passed from the bridge to the lower deck. MT. Boyle was waiting there, holding lantern.
 Huh" he growled when he saw her. 'P'raps you'll believe what I tell you before your hair turns gray. if not sooner. Luck. Did any man ever have such luck as the skipper? Why. If he fell off Mong Blong he'd find a sircus net rigged up to catch him.
 "l agree with you so fully, MT. Boyle,' she whispered, that am go- Ing to marry him."
 T guessed as much,' he answered. "At any rate. fancied it wouldn't be for want of axin' on his part"
 It was wan and broken spirited asobel whom Elsie led to her cabin, but notwithstanding her wretched state her eyes quickly took in the orderly condition of the room.
 T left my clothes strewed all over the floor she said with a nervous ness 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 powder box and was so obviously unconcerned about any incident other than the adventures they had both ex- perienced since they parted that Iso- bel questioned her no further A bath and change of clothing worked mar 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 50 much to tell and to hear.
 Meanwhile the meeting between Tollemache and Gray was full of racial subtleties.
 Tollemache, stepping forward to grasp Gray's hand, felt it was incum- bent on him to utter the first word.
 Had a pretty rotten time of it, I ex- pect?" said be-
 Poisonous. And you?"
 "Oh, fair. Beastly close squeak when you turned up."
 Gray became more explicit when Courtenay met him in the chart room, where the table had to be cleared of debris before some glasses and cou- pie of bottles of champagne could be staged
 When those blackguards cast off from the ship" he said, we scudded away in a sort of ocean mill race which threatened to upset us at any moment--in fact, we gave up hope for a time-but, as the boat kept afoat, MT. Malcolm and I managed to stir up the Chileans, and we got them to steady her with the oars. Some time before daybreak we ran into smooth water and made ont land on the port bow. In few 1Goments We were ashore on pebhlS beach in place alive with realsI When the sun rose we found we were on barren island and. what lwas more, that one of the ships life boats had been upset on reef which we just missed and had lost all her stores, though the men had scrambled into safety. With the aid of our boat and helped by fine weather we raised the lifeboat and recovered some of her fittings. The water casks and tins of food were hauled up by a chap who could dive well. We have been on that lump of rock until today. when final ly persuaded the others that unless we made for the land which We could see in the dim distance the weather would break and our food give out The trou- ble with the Chileans was that they were afraid of the natives hereabouts and preferred to wait on the of chance of ship showing up. At last they saw that Malcolm and I were right. but we missed the full run of the tide and were some miles from the main land, or whatever ii is. when night fell We pushed along cautiously. found the entrance to the cove we had made out l before the light failed and were about to lay to until dawn when we saw a rocket and heard the fog horn. That . woke us up, you bet The Chileans pulled like mad. but when we came near enough to discover that the ship . was being attached by Indians I had a fearful job tO get my heroes to butt in. . That fellow Gomez is q brick He orated like politician, and finally they l got a move on. From what I have seen since came aboard guess you were hustling about that time'
 Yes" said COurtenay. filling a glass with wine. as he heard Boyle's step without He handed the glass to the chief when be entered
 How manytr he asked.
 Huh. We've slung ffty-three h. dians an six of the crew overheard There's fourteen wounded natives an five of our men in the doctors hands Two Alaculofs died of funk when they set eyes on the nigger who turned up fin the lifeboat They thought Well. bere's ehin-ehin 10 everybody. Pm thirsty"
 CHAPTER XVI.