amaica with the Captain?"

"I don't know," said Burke, "but, of course, she must be--he wouldn't
leave her alone in Mexico!"

"Of course she is!" cried Mrs. Cliff. "And Mr. Shirley will see them!
And oh, Mr. Burke, why can't we see them? Of all things in the world I
want to see Edna, and the Captain too! And why can't we go straight to
Jamaica in the _Summer Shelter_ instead of going anywhere else? We may
get there before they all leave; don't you think we could do that?"

The eyes of Captain Burke fairly blazed. "Do it!" he cried, springing to
his feet. "I believe we can do it; at any rate we can try! The same to
you, madam, I would do anything in the world to see Captain Horn, and
nobody knows when we will have the chance! Well, madam, it's all the
plainest kind of sailing; we can get off at daylight to-morrow morning,
and if that yacht sails as they told me she sails, I believe we may
overhaul Shirley, and, perhaps, we will get to Kingston before any of
them! And now I've got to bounce around, for there's a good deal to be
done before night-fall!"

"But what about the Synod?" asked Willy Croup.

"Bless my soul!" exclaimed Mr. Burke, stopping suddenly on his way to
the door. "I forgot the Synod."

Mrs. Cliff hesitated for a moment. "I don't think it need make any
difference! It would be a great shame to disappoint all those good men;
why couldn't we take them along all the same? Their weight wouldn't make
the yacht go any slower, would it, Mr. Burke?"

"Not a bit of it!" said he. "But they may not want to go so far.
Besides, if we find the Captain at Kingston, we mayn't feel like going
back in a hurry. I'll tell you what we could do, Mrs. Cliff! We wouldn't
lose any time worth speaking of if we touched at Nassau,--that's in the
Bahamas, and a jolly place to go to. Then we might discharge our cargo
of ministers, and if you paid their board until the next steamer sailed
for New York, and their passage home, I should think they would be just
as well satisfied as if they came back with us!"

Mrs. Cliff reflected. "That's true!" said she, presently. "I can explain
the case to them, and I don't see why they should not be satisfied. And
as for me, nobody could be more willing than I am to give pleasure to
these ministers, but I don't believe that I could give up seeing Edna
and Captain Horn for the sake of any members of any Synod!"

"All right, madam!" cried the impatient Burke. "You settle the matter
with the par