dangerously ill at the hotel, and when I reached there, a few hours
ago, he was dead, and my niece was in the care of the landlord's
family. My wife, who is out yonder in a carriage, had prepared to
accompany me East to-morrow. Her brother had made no arrangements for
taking the little one on the steamer, so I was forced into this
unusual application."

While the gentleman was making this explanation, the captain was
holding the child in his arms, and admiring the beautiful countenance
and loveliness of face and manner.

"She does look exactly like my poor little Inez," was his thought, as
he gently placed her on her feet again.

"If we take her to Japan, what then?"

"Her parents will be in Tokio, waiting for her. You, as captain, have
the right, which no one would dare question, of taking her into your
cabin with you, and I will compensate you in any manner you may
wish."

"What is her name?" asked Captain Strathmore.

"Inez."

"She shall go," said the sailor, in a husky voice.

CHAPTER II

THE CAPTAIN AND INEZ

The steamer _Polynesia_ was steaming swiftly across the Pacific, in
the direction of Japan--bravely plunging out into the mightiest
expanse of water which spans the globe, and heading for the port that
loomed up from the ocean almost ten thousand miles away.

Although but a few days out, little Inez had become the pet of the
whole ship. She was full of high spirits, bounding health--a laughing,
merry sprite, who made every portion of the steamer her home, and who
was welcome wherever she went.

To the bronzed and rugged Captain Strathmore she was such a reminder
of his own lost Inez that she became a second daughter to him, and
something like a pang stirred his heart when he reflected upon his
arrival at his destination and his parting from the little one.

Inez, as nearly as the captain could gather, had been living for
several years with her uncle and aunt in San Francisco, from which
port her parents had sailed a considerable time before. The stranger
gave a very common name as his own--George Smith--and said he would
await the return of the _Polynesia_ with great anxiety, in order to
learn the particulars of the arrival of his niece in Japan.

However, the captain did not allow his mind to be annoyed by any
speculations as to the past of the little girl; but he could not avoid
a strong yearning which was growing in his heart that something would
turn up--something possibly in th