d sprang
lightly aboard of the strange craft. The natives immediately withdrew,
leaving the young captain, as he appeared to be, to conduct the fair
visitor around the "ship," whose dimensions did not require much time
to investigate.

Fred explained that the proa was a vessel peculiar to the Indian and
Central Pacific oceans, and that it could sail with great swiftness,
going either forward or backward with equal readiness. It is a
favorite boat used for inter-communication between hundreds of the
islands of the South Seas, and the Malays employ them in a different
form for their piratical expeditions. They owe their swiftness mainly
to the fact that they stand so high out of the water, are very narrow,
and present such a large surface to the wind.

"They are good for short voyages," said Fred, "but I shouldn't want to
start for New York or Liverpool in one of them."

"How long will it take us to reach the island from which you came?"
asked Inez.

"If we start early to-morrow morning, with a good wind, we ought to be
there at the end of two days."

This was shorter time than he had given Mate Storms, but he was now
striving to speak the truth.

"And suppose we are overtaken by one of those terrible tempests which
sometimes visit this part of the world?"

"We cannot escape the risk, no matter where we are. The storm that
would sink a proa might cause a seventy-four to founder, and the only
way you can shun danger is to stay here all your life. I hardly think
that such is your wish, Miss Inez."

"No; I am as anxious to leave as are Mr. Storms and the captain.
Indeed, I think I am more so, for I understand that they expect to
wait until to-morrow morning, while if I had my wish I would start
this very hour."

"We are at the disposal of yourself and friends," Sanders courteously
responded; "but the reason for delay is that thereby we expect to be
compelled to spend but a single night on the voyage, while if we
started now we should have two."

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE MATE BECOMES CAPTAIN

"Poor Jack!" murmured Abe Storms, hastening after him. "I have been
fearing this very thing. He has taken the matter more to heart than I,
and there has been a look in his eye in the last few weeks which
showed he was not right; but I thought, when he found he was going
back to his home again, he would almost instantly regain his mental
equipoise.

"But it has operated the other way, and I shouldn't wonder if he is