nd delight, as Arthur read the words, "We have got her,
alive and well. Shall be at Charing Cross Hotel, 8 P. M."

CHAPTER LIV.

WHILE the boat was going to the _Springbok,_ General Rolleston whispered
to Captain Moreland; and what he said may be almost guessed from what
occurred on board the steamer soon afterward. Helen was carried trembling
into the cabin, and the order was given to heave the anchor and get under
way. A groan of disappointment ran through the ship; Captain Moreland
expressed the general's regret to the men, and divided two hundred pounds
upon the capstan; and the groan ended in a cheer.

As for Helen's condition, that was at first mistaken for ill health. She
buried herself for two whole days in her cabin; and from that place faint
moans were heard now and then. The sailors called her the sick lady.

Heaven knows what she went through in that forty-eight hours.

She came upon deck at last in a strange state of mind and body; restless,
strung up, absorbed. The rare vigor she had acquired on the island came
out now with a vengeance. She walked the deck with briskness, and a
pertinacity that awakened admiration in the crew at first, but by and by
superstitious awe. For, while the untiring feet went briskly to and fro
over leagues and leagues of plank every day, the great hazel eyes were
turned inward, and the mind, absorbed with one idea, skimmed the men and
things about her listlessly.

She had a mission to fulfill, and her whole nature was stringing itself
up to do the work.

She walked so many miles a day, partly from excitement, partly with a
deliberate resolve to cherish her health and strength; "I may want them
both," said she, "to clear Robert Penfold." Thought and high purpose
shone through her so, that after a while nobody dared trouble her much
with commonplaces. To her father, she was always sweet and filial, but
sadly cold compared with what she had always been hitherto. He was taking
her body to England, but her heart stayed behind upon that island. He saw
this, and said it.

"Forgive me," said she, coldly; and that was all her reply.

Sometimes she had violent passions of weeping; and then he would endeavor
to console her; but in vain. They ran their course, and were succeeded by
the bodily activity and concentration of purpose they had interrupted for
a little while.

At last, after a rapid voyage, they drew near the English coast; and then
General Rolleston, who had hither