not
forgotten me?"

Denison hastened to explain. "Indeed he has not. He remembers you very
well, and would have come with me, but he is putting the schooner on the
beach to-day to clean her. And I am sure he will be delighted to come
and see you to-morrow."

"Of course he must. Surely every English and American in the South Seas
should come and see me; for my husband was ever a good friend to every
sailor that ever sailed in the island trade--from Fiji to the Bonins.
There now, I won't chatter any more, or else you will be too frightened
to come back to such a garrulous old creature. Ah, if God had but spared
to me my eyesight I should come with you into the mountains. I love
the solitude, and the sweet call of the pigeons, and the sound of
the waterfall at the side of Taomaunga. And I know every inch of
the country, and blind as I am, I could yet find my way along the
mountain-side. Kate, and you, Harry, do not keep Mr. Denison out too
late."

By sunset the shooting party had returned, and after a bathe in the cool
waters of the mountain stream Denison returned to the house. Kate Handle
and her sister, assisted by some native women, were plucking pigeons for
the evening meal. Harry was lying down on the broad of his back on the
grassy sward with closed eyes, smoking, and their hostess was sitting on
a wide cane bench outside the house. She heard the young man's footstep,
and beckoned him to seat himself beside her. And then she told him her
story.

II

"I don't know where I was born--for, as I daresay Randle has told you,
I was only five years of age when I was picked up at sea in a boat,
the only other occupant of which was a Swedish seaman. The vessel which
rescued us was one of the transports used for conveying convicts to New
South Wales, and was named the _Britannia_, but when she sighted the
boat she was on a voyage to Tahiti in the Society Islands. I imagine
this was sometime about 1805, so I must now be about seventy years of
age.

"The Swedish sailor told the captain of the _Britannia_ that he and I
were the only survivors of a party of six--among whom were my father and
mother--belonging to a small London barque named the _Winifred_, She was
employed in the trade between China and Valparaiso, and my father was
owner as well as captain. On the voyage from Canton, and when within
fifty miles of Tahiti, and in sight of land, she took fire, and the
Chinese crew, when they saw that there was no hop