falling into a stupor from which he tried desperately to save
himself. Ruth was bandaging his wound when she noticed his growing
faintness. She cried out in alarm.

"Allen, dear, Allen!" she begged. "Rouse up! Don't faint!"

"I--I'm going, Ruth," he answered.

"No, no;" she cried desperately. "I won't let you!"

"I'm going," he muttered, clinging to her.

"You mustn't!" she exclaimed wildly. "Don't go, Allen! Not until I
tell you----"

But the next moment Drew slipped into unconsciousness.

When he awoke to find himself between snowy sheets in his old berth
with Ruth's cool hand upon his forehead and her tender eyes looking
into his, he had many things to learn. She pieced out for him the
happenings after that stark fight on the island. She told how Parmalee
had picked up a revolver from the field and played his part in the
fight; how, after the burial of the dead and aid to the wounded, the
treasure chest had been transferred to the schooner; how the remnant of
the mutineers had evaded capture and had fled to the remote parts of
the island; and, greatest of all, how that last earthquake shock had
tipped the reef again and made a new opening in the barrier that had
hemmed in the schooner. She told him, too, that in an hour the _Bertha
Hamilton_ would be ploughing the waves of the Caribbean.

To all these things he listened with unutterable content and peace
beyond all telling. He was alive! His name was stainless! His future
was secure! And Ruth was beside him! It was heaven just to lie there,
drinking in the beauty of her eyes and breathing the fragrance of her
hair when she bent over to adjust his pillow.

"And we shall soon have bidden good-bye to Earthquake Island!" Ruth
exclaimed gaily.

"Is that what you've dubbed it?" he asked, smiling. "It couldn't be
better christened. Earthquakes seem to be its chief stock in trade."

"Except doubloons," she reminded him. "Don't be ungrateful."

Tyke came in and sat patting Drew's hand, too deeply moved at first to
trust himself to speak. The captain, too, was a visitor, confidently
attributing the salvation of the party to Drew's pluck and daring. And
Parmalee--a vastly stronger and healthier Parmalee than before he had
been compelled to "rough it"--showed himself exceedingly friendly.

"It has been a great voyage for me," he said. "I'm open to
congratulations, Drew. My health is so much improved, that I shall be
married as soon as we reac