that the deck-beams of the brig
would be the most suitable for his purpose; and to obtain these it was
necessary to break up the deck--a long and arduous job, only to be
accomplished with hard labour and the assistance of an elaborate system
of tackles.

It was while he was thus employed that the first break occurred in the
fine weather that had prevailed ever since their arrival at the island.
It began with the gradual dying away of the trade wind, followed by a
heavy banking-up of dark thundery-looking clouds along the western
horizon. With the cessation of the wind the temperature rose to such a
pitch that work became an impossibility, and Dick was at length
reluctantly compelled to knock-off and return to the shore, much to
Flora's satisfaction--for she was continually in dread lest the untiring
and feverish energy with which he laboured should result in his
suffering a serious breakdown.

As it was too hot even to walk about, the pair were perforce compelled
to remain inactive all the afternoon; and Flora inwardly decided that
this would be a good opportunity for Dick to relate to her his promised
story. It needed a very considerable amount of persuasion and coaxing
to induce him to do so; but eventually he yielded and told her the whole
miserable history from beginning to end, winding up with the words--

"And thus you find me here to-day, a disgraced and ruined man, under an
assumed name, without prospects or hope of any description, with only a
hundred pounds wherewith to begin a new career in an alien land, and no
possibility whatever, so far as I can see, of ever being able to
establish my innocence and so win reconciliation with my poor, proud,
heart-broken father. Were it not for the fact that you are here, and
must be restored to your friends with as little delay as may be, I could
be well content to end my days here on this unknown island, alone and
forgotten by all. Indeed, I think it more than likely that as soon as I
have discharged my duty to you I shall return here."

"My poor Dick," exclaimed Flora, in tones of profound sympathy; "how you
must have suffered! I am no longer surprised at your frequent fits of
depression and melancholy; the wonder to me is that you did not go mad,
or die of shame, in that horrible prison. But now that you have told me
all you must put everything that is past behind you, and try to forget
it; _I_ believe your story implicitly; you could not be the man you have