ion of one of
the most lovely and verdant scenes that the world can show. Before
they had well examined it, however, the vessel had dropped her anchor,
and was surrounded by boats full of custom-house officials, boats full
of diving boys, of vegetables, of wicker chairs and tables, of
parrots, fruit, and "other articles too numerous to mention," as they
say in the auctioneer's catalogues, and they knew that it was time to
go ashore.

"Well, it has been a pleasant voyage," said Mrs. Carr. "I am glad you
are not going on."

"So am I."

"You will come and see me to-morrow, will you not? Look, there is my
house," and she pointed to a large, white house opposite Leeuw Rock,
that had a background of glossy foliage, and commanded a view of the
sea. "If you come, I will show you my beetles. And, if you care to
come next day, I will show you my mummies."

"And, if I come the next, what will you show me?"

"So often as you may come," she said, with a little tremor in her
voice, "I shall find something to show you."

Then they shook hands and took their respective ways, she--together
with the unfortunate Miss Terry, who looked like a resuscitated corpse
--on to the steam-launch that was waiting for her, and he in the boat
belonging to Miles' Hotel.

CHAPTER XXXIV

A minute or two after the boat in which Arthur was being piloted to
the shore, under the guidance of the manager of Miles' Hotel, had left
the side of the vessel, Mrs. Carr's steam-launch shot up alongside of
them, its brass-work gleaming in the sunlight like polished gold. On
the deck, near the little wheel, stood Mrs. Carr herself, and by her
side, her martial cloak around her, lay Miss Terry, still as any log.

"Mr. Heigham," said Mrs. Carr, in a voice that sounded across the
water like a silver bell, "I forgot that you will not be able to find
your way to my place by yourself to-morrow, so I will send down a
bullock-car to fetch you; you have to travel about with bullocks here,
you know. Good-bye," and, before he could answer, the launch's head
was round, and she was tearing through the swell at the rate of
fourteen knots.

"That's her private launch," said the manager of the hotel to Arthur,
"it is the quickest in the island, and she always goes at full steam.
She must have come some way round to tell you that, too. There's her
place, over there."

"Mrs. Carr comes here every year, does she not?"

"Oh, yes, every year