on she
stopped short.

"Or what?" inquired Hazel, eagerly.

She replied to Welch. "When tigers and things come to me, I can let you
know, Mr. Welch, if you have any curiosity about the result of their
visit."

"Tigers!" said Hazel, in answer to this side slap; "there are no tigers
here; no large animals of prey exist in the Pacific."

"What makes you think that?"

"It is notorious. Naturalists are agreed."

"But I am not. I heard noises all night. And little I expected that
anything of me would be left this morning, except, perhaps, my back hair.
Mr. Welch, you are clever at rigging things--that is what you call
it--and so please rig me a bell-rope, then I shall not be eaten alive
without creating some _little_ disturbance."

"I'll do it, miss," said Welch, "this very night."

Hazel said nothing, but pondered. Accordingly, that very evening a piece
of stout twine, with a stone at the end of it, hung down from the roof of
Helen's house; and this twine clove the air until it reached a ring upon
the mainmast of the cutter; thence it descended, and was to be made fast
to something or somebody. The young lady inquired no further. The very
sight of this bell-rope was a great comfort to her; it reunited her to
civilized life. That night she lay down, and quaked considerably less.
Yet she woke several times; and an hour before daylight she heard
distinctly a noise that made her flesh creep. It was like the snoring of
some great animals. This horrible sound was faint and distant; but she
heard it between the roll of the waves, and that showed it was not the
sea roaring; she hid herself in her rugs, and cowered till daybreak. A
score of times she was minded to pull her bell-rope; but always a womanly
feeling, strong as her love of life, withheld her. "Time to pull that
bell-rope when the danger was present or imminent," she thought to
herself. "The thing will come smelling about before it attacks me, and
then I will pull the bell;" and so she passed an hour of agony.

Next morning, at daybreak, Hazel met her just issuing from her hut, and
pointing to his net told her he was going to forage; and would she be
good enough to make the fire and have boiling water ready? he was sorry
to trouble her; but poor Welch was worse this morning. Miss Rolleston cut
short his excuses. "Pray do not take me for a child; of course I will
light the fire, and boil the water. Only I have no lucifer matches."

"Here are two," said he. "I ca