e case in her hand. It was strange, and to
some extent embarrassing that Dick should insist upon making her the
present. He had humiliated her and it was impossible that she could marry
him, but there was an appeal in his eyes that was hard to deny. Besides,
the clasp was beautiful and he had shown nice taste in choosing it for
her.

"Very well," she said gently. "I will keep it and wear it now and then."

Dick made a sign of gratitude and they went on, but Clare stopped at the
next corner and held out her hand.

"I must not take you any farther," she said firmly. "I wish you a good
voyage."

She went into a shop and Dick turned back to the harbor where he boarded
the launch. The boat was loaded deep with coal, the fireman was busy, and
soon after the provisions Dick had bought arrived, steam was up. He took
the helm, the engine began to throb, and they glided through the cool
shadow along the mole. When they met the smooth swell at the harbor mouth
the sea blazed with reflected light, and Dick was glad to fix his eyes
upon the little compass in the shade of the awning astern. The boat
lurched away across the long undulations, with the foam curling up about
her bow and rising aft in a white following wave.

"I thought of leaving the last few bags of coal," Jake remarked. "There's
not much life in her and we take some chances of being washed off if she
meets a breaking sea."

"It's a long run and we'll soon burn down the coal, particularly as we'll
have to drive her hard to catch the Danish boat," Dick replied. "If we
can do that, we'll get Kenwardine's steamer at her last port of call.
It's lucky she isn't going direct to Kingston."

"You have cut things rather fine, but I suppose you worked it out from
the sailing lists. The worst is that following the coast like this takes
us off our course."

Dick nodded. After making some calculations with Don Sebastian's help, he
had found it would be possible to catch a small Danish steamer that would
take them to a port at which Kenwardine's boat would arrive shortly
afterwards. But since it had been given out that he was going to Coronal,
he must keep near the coast until he passed Adexe. This was necessary,
because Kenwardine would not risk a visit to Jamaica, which was British
territory, if he thought he was being followed.

"We'll make it all right if the weather keeps fine," he answered.

They passed Adexe in the afternoon and boldly turned seawards across a
wide