stretched himself on the
sand, and lay looking upward into the deep blue of the night, bathed in
the moonlight, and listening dreamily to the soft sound of the water as
it returned slowly, slowly back from the African coast. He thought many
thoughts, and deep ones too, for his mind was of a high order; and at
last he was so far away on ideal heights that, coming home after
midnight, it was no wonder if, half unconsciously, he felt himself
above the others; especially when he passed the little Sister's closed
door, and thought, smiling not unkindly, how simple she was.

The next morning the two men went off in their boat again for the day,
this time alone. There were still a few more questions to settle about
that shark, and, to tell the truth, they both liked a good day of
unencumbered sailing better than anything else.

About four o'clock in the afternoon Melvyna, happening to look out of
the door, saw a cloud no bigger than a man's hand low down on the
horizon line of the sea. Something made her stand and watch it for a
few moments. Then, "Miss Luke! Miss Luke! Miss Luke! Miss Luke!" she
called quickly. Down came the little Sister, startled at the cry, her
lace work still in her hand.

"Look!" said Melvyna.

The Sister looked, and this is what she saw: a line white as milk
coming toward them on the water, and behind it a blackness.

"What is it?" she asked.

"A tornader," said Melvyna with white lips. "I've only seen one, and
then I was over in the town; but it's awful! We must run back to the
thicket," Seizing her companion's arm, the strong Northern woman
hurried her across the sand, through the belt of sand hills, and into
the thicket, where they crouched on its far side close down under the
protecting backbone. "The bushes will break the sand, and the ridge
will keep us from being buried in it," she said. "I dursn't stay on the
shore, for the water'll rise."

The words were hardly spoken before the tornado was upon them, and the
air was filled with the flying sand, so that they could hardly breathe.
Half choked, they beat with their hands before them to catch a breath.
Then came a roar, and for an instant, distant as they were, they caught
a glimpse of the crest of the great wave that followed the whirlwind.
It seemed to them mountains high, and ready to engulf the entire land.
With a rushing sound it plunged over the keeper's house, broke against
the lower story of the tower, hissed across the sand, swall