you're all right now, aren't you?"

"What's the matter?" said Jack, coming from somewhere aloft or astern.
"Heaven bless me, what ails you, Aunt Mary?"

"I don't wonder I'm pale," said Aunt Mary faintly, "oh--oh--"

"We must put our heads together," said Burnett, taking a drink from a
flask that he took out of his pocket; "I must soon put my head on
something, and your aunt looks to me to feel the same way. Mitchell, why
did you let me forget that vow I made last time to never come again?"

"Your vows to never do things again are about as stable as your present
hold on an upright position," said Clover, laying a steadying hand upon
his friend's waveringness. "Sit down, little boy, sit down."

Burnett sat down, Mitchell smiled, Jack laughed, and Aunt Mary groaned.

The boat was rising and falling rapidly now, and as she ran further and
further out into the ever freshening wind she kept on rising and falling
yet more rapidly. The more motion there was the more Aunt Mary seemed to
sift down in her two chairs.

"We'd better put back," said Jack; "this won't do, you know. How do you
feel now, Aunt Mary?" he added, leaning over her.

Aunt Mary opened her eyes and looked at him but made no reply.

"Ask me how I feel, if you dare," said Burnett, from where his chair was
drawn up not far away. "I couldn't kill you just now, but I will some day
I promise you."

He was very white and had a look about his mouth that showed that he meant
what he said.

Some bells rang somewhere.

"That's dinner," exclaimed Clover.

Aunt Mary gave a piercing cry.

"Oh, take me somewhere else," she said, throwing her hands up to her face;
"somewhere where there'll never be nothin' to eat again. I--I can't bear to
hear about eatin'."

"I'm going to take her down into one of the cabins," said Jack hastily,
"she belongs in bed."

"No, turn back the carpet and lay me in the bath-tub," almost sobbed the
poor victim. "I don't feel like I could get flat enough anywhere else."

"She has the proper spirit," said Burnett faintly, "only I don't feel as
if I could get flat enough anywhere at all. What in the name of the Great
Pyramid ever possessed me to come?"

Mitchell rose quickly to his feet.

"You put your aunt to bed, Jack," he said, "and I'll put my yacht to
backing. This expedition is expeditiously heading on to what might be
termed a failure. I can see that, even if we're only in a Sound."

"When do you suppose we'll get back?" t