truck me. Putting my arm within his, I said,
as coolly as I could, "Never mind the sea, Jackson; let us have a
_matabicho_" (our local expression for a "drink"). He took the bait, and
came away quietly enough to the house. Once there, I enticed him into
the dining-room, and shutting to the door quickly, I locked it on the
outside, resolving to keep him there until Mr. Bransome should return;
for, being alone, I was afraid of him.

Then I went back to the end of the Point to look for the return of the
two boats. When I reached it I saw that the rollers had increased
in size in the short time that I had been absent, and that they were
breaking, one after another, as fast as they could come shoreward; not
pygmy waves, but great walls of water along their huge length before
they fell.

A surf such as I had never yet seen had arisen. I stood and anxiously
watched through a glass the boats at the steamer's side, and at length,
to my relief, I saw one of them leave her, but as it came near I saw, to
my surprise, that Mr. Bransome was not in the boat, and that it was not
the one that Sooka steered. Quickly it was overtaken by the breakers,
but escaped their power, and came inshore on the back of a majestic
roller that did not break until it was close to the beach, where the
boat was in safety.

Not without vague apprehension at his imprudence, but still not
anticipating any actual harm from it, I thought that Mr. Bransome had
chosen to come back in Sooka's boat, and I waited and waited to see _it_
return, although the daylight had now so waned that I could no longer
distinguish what was going on alongside the steamer. At last I caught
sight of the boat, a white speck upon the waters, and, just as it
entered upon the dangerous part of the bar, I discerned to my infinite
amazement, that two figures were seated in the stern--a man and a
woman--a white woman; I could see her dress fluttering in the wind, and
Sooka's black figure standing behind her.

On came the boat, impelled by the swift-flowing seas, for a quarter of
an hour it was tossed on the crests of the waves. Again and again it
rose and sank with them as they came rolling in, but somehow, after
a little further time, it seemed to me that it did not make such way
toward the shore as it should have done.

I lifted the glass to my eyes, and I saw that the boys were hardly
pulling at all, though the boat was not close to the rocks that were
near the cliff. Nor did Sooka