ng that would be of material service
to him. There were a few trifling matters that, at the last moment, he
decided to take; and these he put into the barque's dinghy and thus
carried off to the cutter. By the time that he was back the two men had
returned, laden with quite as much fruit as could be conveniently stowed
away aboard so small a craft as the _Flora_; and this also they carried
off and put on board. Then came breakfast--their last meal on the
island, and a happy, hilarious meal it was.

Then, leaving everything just as it was, they all went down to the beach
and stepped into the barque's gig, in which they pulled alongside the
cutter. Arrived there, they dropped overboard a heavy "killick" of rock
which they had previously attached to the boat's painter, and thus
anchored her in readiness for the _Minerva's_ crew whenever they might
choose to fetch her. To set the cutter's canvas was the work of a few
minutes, and, this done, the anchor was quickly hove up and the little
craft got under way. On their way out of the lagoon they tacked close
under the _Minerva's_ stern, receiving a cheery farewell hail of "A
quick and pleasant passage to you!" from Marshall, who was walking the
poop while his scanty crew were getting some water-casks into the
longboat; and ten minutes later they dashed through the entrance
channel, and found themselves riding buoyantly over the long undulations
of the Pacific swell, as Leslie bore away to pass to the northward of
the island and thence west over the interminable miles of water that lay
between them and home.

My story is told; for with the voyage of the _Flora_, adventurous though
it was, this narrative has nothing to do; suffice it to say that having
called at Tahiti and Tongatabu the little cutter safely passed Port
Phillip Heads and arrived at Melbourne on the fifty-third day out from
the island. Here Leslie duly cashed his draft for one hundred pounds,
and with the proceeds thereof secured for Flora a passage to Bombay,
that young lady having decided to go on at once to her father--without
waiting to visit her Australian friends--in order that the judge's
natural anxiety to see his daughter after her singular adventure might
be gratified with as little delay as possible. And further to curtail
that anxiety to its lowest limit, she despatched a cablegram to her
father within an hour of her arrival in Melbourne. As for Dick, he
allowed his affairs to stand during th