ly giving expression to emotion, but had a
purpose in his performance. The lady, too, began to shout, shrilly. She
waved her damp pocket handkerchief round and round her head. Priscilla
and Frank turned and saw that another boat, a small black boat, with
a very dilapidated lug sail, had appeared round the corner of the next
island, and was making towards Inishark.

"Bother," said Priscilla, "that man, whoever he is, will bring them back
their boat."

The steersman in the lug-sailed boat altered his course slightly and
reached down towards the derelict As he neared her he dropped his sail
and got out oars.

"That's young Kinsella," said Priscilla. "I know him by the red sleeve
his mother sewed into that gray shirt of his. No one else has a shirt
the least like it. He's a soft-hearted sort of boy who'd do a good turn
to any one. He's sure to take their boat back to them."

"He has a lady with him," said Frank.

"He has. I can't see who she is; but it doesn't look like his mother.
Can't be, in fact, for she has a baby to mind. I collared a lot of
flannel out of a box in Aunt Juliet's room last 'hols' and gave it to
her for the baby. It's a bit of what I gave her that was made into a
sleeve for Jimmy's shirt. I wonder now who it is he has got with him?"

Jimmy Kinsella overtook the drifting boat, took her painter, and began
to tow her towards Inishark.

"That lady," said Priscilla, "is a black stranger to me. Who can she
possibly be?"

Jimmy Kinsella rowed hard, and in about ten minutes ran his own
boat aground on Inishark. He disembarked, dragged at the painter of
Flanagan's boat and handed her over to the lady on the island. A long
conversation followed. The whole party, Jimmy Kinsella, his lady, the
dripping spy, and the original lady with the damp pocket handkerchief,
consulted together eagerly. Then they took the hold-all out of
Flanagan's boat. There was another conversation, and it became plain
that the two ladies were expostulating with the dripping gentleman.
Jimmy Kinsella stood a little apart and gazed placidly at the two boats.
Then the hold-all was unpacked and a number of garments laid out on the
beach. They were sorted out and a bundle of them handed to the spy.
He walked straight up the slope of the island and disappeared over the
crest of the hill.

"Gone to change his clothes," said Priscilla.

The two ladies repacked the hold-all. Jimmy Kinsella stowed it in the
bow of Flanagan's boat. Then t