rotector.

"He is indeed a good boy. I do not think we should ever have reached
land had it not been for him."

As the bent figure of the old trader disappeared along the path that
led to his own house, which was half a mile away, Mrs. Marston reseated
herself, and with her sunbrowned hands folded in her lap, gazed dreamily
out upon the glassy ocean, and gave herself up to reverie.

* * * * *

When, in an agony of fear, she had obeyed Villari's request to go below,
she had locked herself in her own cabin, and after putting her infant
to sleep, had sat up with the girl Serena, waiting for the morning. The
pistol which the Italian had given her she laid upon the little table,
and Serena, who knew of Villari's infatuation for her mistress, sat
beside her with a knife in her hand.

"I cannot shoot with the little gun which hath six shots, lady," said
the girl, "but I can drive this knife into his heart."

Half an hour passed without their being disturbed, and then they heard
Villari call out to let draw the head sheets, and in a few minutes the
schooner was running before a sharp rain squall from the northward. As
they sat listening to the spattering of the rain on the deck above, one
of the skylight flaps was lifted, and, to their joy, their names were
called by the boy Lilo.

"Serena, Ami! 'Tis I, Lilo. Do not shoot at me," he cried, and at the
same moment Villari came to the skylight and said--

"The boy wants to stay below with you, Mrs. Marston. I did not know he
was on board till a little while ago." Then the flap was lowered, and
they saw no more of him till the morning.

The delight of Lilo at finding Mrs. Marston and Serena together was
unbounded, and for some minutes the boy was so overjoyed at seeing them
again, that even Mrs. Marston, terrified and agitated as she was at
Villari's conduct, had to smile when he took her feet in his hands and
pressed them to his cheek. As soon as his excitement subsided, he told
them of what had occurred after he had been put down into the foc'sle.

About a quarter of an hour after the boat had gone, the scuttle was
opened, and one of the sailors who were left on board told him to come
up on deck. Villari was at the wheel, and was in a very bad temper, for
he angrily demanded of the two seamen what they meant by keeping him on
board, instead of sending him on shore in the boat. One of the men, who
was called "Bucky" and who