s he sat with his eyes half-closed. In
the distance he could see some of the Maoris coming and going in a
listless, careless way, as if their life was a very pleasant indolence
without a care.

It was very beautiful and wonderfully attractive. On board the ship
there were hard work, hard living, peremptory orders, and what seemed to
the proud boy a state of slavery, while on shore offered itself a life
of ease where there would be no battling with storm, and risk of war or
shipwreck.

Why should he not take advantage of this or some other opportunity, and
steal ashore?

It would be desertion, and setting aside the punishment held out to the
one who forsook his ship after being forced into His Majesty's navy,
there was a feeling troubling Don that it would be dishonourable to go.

On the other side there was home, the strong desire to be free, and a
love of adventure prompting him to escape.

"No," he said decidedly at last; "it would be cowardly and base to
desert. They treat me badly, but not hardly enough to make me run away.
I'll stop and bear it like a man."

Somehow Don felt lighter in heart after coming to this determination;
and after looking round and wondering how long the explorers would be
before they returned, and also wishing he could have been of the party,
he leaned his elbows on the side of the boat and gazed down into the
clear water, and through it at the beautiful lace-like pattern made by
the sun, casting the netted shadow of the ripples on the soft pebbly
sand.

Now and then a shoal of fish glided in and dashed away. Then one
brilliantly decked in gold and silver and blue came floating by, and Don
watched it eagerly, wishing the while that he had a line.

He was leaning over the side in this way, gazing down at the water, now
about four feet deep where the boat had swung, when he became aware of
something pale and shadowy some little distance off. Looking at it in a
sloping direction made the ocean water seem so dense that he could not
make out what it was for some little time. At first it seemed to be a
dimly-seen patch of seaweed; then it appeared to be too regular and
rounded, and it struck him that it must be a large transparent
jelly-fish floating in with the tide, till he made out that it was
continued backward from him, and that it was larger than he had
imagined; and as he looked the object gradually grew plainer and more
distinct. It was still shadowy and grey, and had a pe