ammond and she'll keep it. She's no liar, whatever else she is. He may
be minister of the Regular church, though I'LL never set under him, but
he'll never marry her, now."

CHAPTER XIX

IN WHICH A RECEPTION IS CALLED OFF

Far out on the Pacific coast there are two small islands, perhaps
a hundred miles distant from one another. The first of these is
uninhabited. On the other is a little colony of English-speaking people,
half-breed descendants of native women and the survivors of a crew from
a British vessel cast away there in the latter part of the eighteenth
century.

On the first of these islands, the smaller one, the Sea Mist had been
wrecked. Driven out of her course by a typhoon, she staggered through
day after day and night after night of terrific wind and storm until,
at last, there was promise of fair weather. Captain Nat, nearly worn out
from anxiety, care, and the loss of sleep, had gone to his stateroom
and the first mate was in charge. It was three o'clock, the wind still
blowing and the darkness pitchy, when the forward lookout shrieked a
warning, "Breakers under the lee!" Almost the next instant the ship was
on a coral reef, full of water, and the seas breaking over her from stem
to stern.

Morning came and showed a little patch of land, with palm trees and
tropical vegetation waving in the gusts and green in the sunshine.
Captain Nat ordered the boats to be lowered. Much as he hated the
thought, he saw that the Sea Mist had made her last voyage and must
be abandoned. He went to the cabin, collected papers and charts and
prepared to leave. The ship's money, over ten thousand dollars in gold
belonging to the owner and to be used in trade and speculation among the
East Indies, he took with him. Then the difficult and dangerous passage
through the opening in the reef was begun.

Only the captain's boat reached the shore. The mate's was caught by a
huge breaker, dashed against the reef and sunk. Captain Nat, his second
mate and five of his men were all that was left of the Sea Mist's
company. And on that island they remained for nearly two weeks.
Provisions they had brought ashore with them. Water they found by
digging. Nat hid the gold at night, burying it on the beach below
high-water mark.

Then, having made sure of his location by consulting the chart, he
determined to attempt a voyage to the second island, where he knew
the English colony to be. Provisions were getting short, and to remain