re
they to live on?--to come at once to the lowest but most pressing
necessity of the situation?

They had weather-proof shelter. Firing they could procure from the
interior woodwork of the house and outbuildings. And they had a small
amount of tea and sugar, and half a tin of condensed milk, and rather
more than half of the day's provisions, since they had contemplated
high tea before embarking again. He determined that, if the storm
showed no signs of abating, the high tea must be a low one, since its
constituents might possibly have to serve for to-morrow's breakfast
as well.

Both girls, their own perceptions strung tight by the electric state
of matters outside, noticed the touch of anxiety in his face as he
turned from the window, but both declined to show it.

"How's her head, Captain?" asked Miss Penny jovially.

"Dead on to a lee shore," he answered in her own humour. "But the
anchorage is good and we're not likely to drift."

"Come! That's something to be thankful for, under the circumstances.
Brecqhou banging broadside on to that big black Gouliot rock would be
a most unpleasant experience. How about the sunset cliffs of Sark?"

"They're very much under a cloud. I'm afraid we must pass them for
this time and choose a better. The cliffs indeed are there, but the
sun is much a-wanting."

"Hamlet without the ghost of a father or even a sun."

"Truly!" And looking at Margaret, he said earnestly, "I can't tell you
how sorry I am it has turned out this way."

"But it is no fault of yours, Mr. Graeme. No one could possibly have
foreseen such a breakdown in the weather, with such a glorious morning
as we had."

"After all, I'm not at all sure it isn't all Mr. Graeme's fault," said
Miss Penny musingly.

"As how?" he asked.

"Didn't you stop me giving Johnnie Vautrin six demanded pennies to
keep it fine all day?"

"I discouraged the imposition, certainly. But I don't suppose Johnnie
could have done much--except with your sixpence."

"He's a queer clever boy, is Johnnie. He certainly said it wasn't
going to keep fine."

"Little humbug!"

"Yet you gave him fivepence for seeing--or saying he saw--two crows
and three crows, because two crows mean good luck and three crows
mean----"

"You talk as if you believed his nonsense, Hennie," broke in Margaret.

"Perhaps I do--to some extent. He certainly declined to pledge himself
to a fine day, and it remains to be seen if the rest of his--"

"--Humbug,