didn't dream you'd come down here," he said, at length.

"No, you never invited me, so I came without," said the girl softly;
"it's a dear little schooner, and I like it very much. I shall come
often."

A slight shade passed over Captain Flower's face, but he said nothing.

"You must take me back now," said Miss Tyrell. "Good-bye, Mr. Fraser."

She held out her hand to the mate, and giving a friendly pressure, left
the cabin, followed by Flower.

The mate let them get clear of the ship, and then, clambering on to
the jetty, watched them off the wharf, and, plunging his hands into his
pockets, whistled softly.

"Poppy Tyrell," he said to himself, slowly. "Poppy Tyrell! I wonder why
the skipper has never mentioned her. I wonder why she took his arm. I
wonder whether she knows that he's engaged to be married."

Deep in thought he paced slowly up and down the wharf, and then wandered
listlessly round the piled-up empties and bags of sugar in the open
floor beneath the warehouse. A glance through the windows of the office
showed him the watchman slumbering peacefully by the light of a solitary
gas-jet, and he went back to the schooner and gazed at the dark water
and the dim shapes of the neighbouring craft in a vein of gentle
melancholy. He walked to the place where her chair had been, and tried
to conjure up the scene again; then, becoming uncertain as to the exact
spot, went down to the cabin, where, the locker being immovable, no
such difficulty presented itself. He gazed his fill, and then, smoking a
meditative pipe, turned in and fell fast asleep.

He was awakened suddenly from a dream of rescuing a small shark
surrounded by a horde of hungry Poppies, by the hurried and dramatic
entrance of Captain Fred Flower. The captain's eyes were wild and his
face harassed, and he unlocked the door of his state-room and stood with
the handle of it in his hand before he paused to answer the question in
the mate's sleepy eyes.

"It's all right, Jack," he said, breathlessly.

"I'm glad of that," said the mate, calmly.

"I hurried a bit," said the skipper.

"Anxious to see me again, I suppose," said the mate; "what are you
listening for?"

"Thought I heard somebody in the water as I came aboard," said Flower
glibly.

"What have you been up to?" enquired the other, quickly.

Captain Flower turned and regarded him with a look of offended dignity.

"Good heavens! don't look like that," said the mate, misreading it. "Yo