were healing. But--but I thank God I never touched him. I thank
God I never proved as big a blackguard as he. But don't mention his name
to me. If you think so much of him that you must be talking, talk to my
gal, Rosebud. Tell her what a fine man she's got for an uncle, how
rich he is, how generous--but _I_ shall never mention his name. I'm a
straight-spoken man. If I was to tell my gal what I thought of him, I
should fill her with shame that such a man should be kindred flesh and
blood."

The Pilot had stood still to deliver this harangue, and he now sat down,
and buried his face in his hands. When he again raised his head, the
skipper without a ship was helping himself sorrowfully to more of the
whisky that was four over proof.

Slowly the rugged Pilot rose, and passed out of the French window into
the garden of roses and the sunlight.

"I think," said Sartoris, passing the decanter to Scarlett, "that
another drop o' this will p'raps straighten us up a bit, and help us to
see what we've gone an' done. For myself, I own I've lost my bearings
and run into a fog-bank. I'd be glad if some one would help me out."

"The old man's a powder-magazine, to which you managed to put a match.
That's how it is, Captain. These many years he's been a sleeping
volcano, which has broken suddenly into violent eruption."

Both men, figures comical enough for a pantomime, looked seriously at
each other; but not so Amiria, whose face appeared in the doorway.

"It's a mystery, a blessed puzzle; but I'd give half-a-crown for a
smoke," said Sartoris, looking wistfully at the Pilot's tobacco-pipes on
the mantelpiece. "I wonder if the young lady would object if I had a
draw."

There was an audible titter in the passage.

"A man doesn't realise how poor he can be till he gets shipwrecked,"
said Scarlett: "then he knows what the loss of his pipe and 'baccy
means."

There was a scuffling outside the door, and the young lady with the
brown eyes was forcibly pushed into the room.

"Oh, Rose, I'm ashamed," exclaimed the Maori girl, as the Pilot's
daughter pushed her forward. "But you two men are so funny and
miserable, that I can't help myself,"--she laughed good-naturedly--"and
there's Captain Summerhayes, fretting and fuming in the garden, as if
he'd lost a thousand pounds."

The scarecrows had risen respectfully to their feet, when suddenly the
humour of the situation struck them, and they laughed in unison; and
Amiria, shaking with