impleton at a fair to purchase a pinchbeck
watch.

"What does the woman want?" asks Mrs Gancy, greatly puzzled; all the
rest sharing her wonder, save Seagriff, who answers, with a touch of
anxiety in his voice, "She wants to barter off her babby, ma'am, for
that 'ere scarf."

"Oh!" exclaims Leoline, shocked, "surely you don't mean that, Mr
Chips."

"Sure I do, Miss; neyther more nor less. Thet's jest what the unnateral
woman air up to. An' she wouldn't be the first as hez done the same.
I've heerd afore uv a Feweegin woman bein' willin' to sell her chile for
a purty piece o' cloth."

The shocking incident brings the bargaining to an end. Situated as they
are, the gig's people have no desire to burden themselves with Fuegian
_bric-a-brac_, and have consented to the traffic only for the sake of
keeping on good terms with the traffickers. But it has become tiresome,
and Captain Gancy, eager to be off, orders oars out, the wind having
quite died away.

Out go the oars, and the boat is about moving off, when the inhuman
mother tosses her pickaninny into the bottom of the canoe, and, reaching
her long skinny arm over the gig's stern-sheets, makes a snatch at the
coveted scarf! She would have clutched it, had not her hand been struck
down on the instant by the blade of an oar wielded by Henry Chester.

The hag, foiled in her attempt, sets up a howl of angry disappointment,
her companions joining in the chorus and sawing the air with threatening
arms. Impotent is their rage, however, for the crafty Seagriff has
secured all their missile weapons, and under the impulse of four strong
rowers, the gig goes dancing on, soon leaving the clumsy Fuegian craft
far in its wake, with the savages shouting and threatening vengeance.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1. The height of Sarmiento, according to Captain King, is 6,800
feet, though others make it out higher, one estimate giving it 6,967.
It is the most conspicuous as well as the highest of Fuegian
mountains,--a grand cone, always snow-covered for thousands of feet
below the summit, and sometimes to its base.

Note 2. The shell most in vogue among Fuegian belles for neck adornment
is a pearl oyster (_Margarita violacea_) of an iridescent purplish
colour, and about half an inch in diameter. It is found adhering to the
kelp, and forms the chief food of several kinds of seabirds, among
others the "steamer-duck." Shells