nswered, while her face took on the dreamy look again. "We
are out of all the tracks. We will not be picked up. We are due west
from Ilio Island. I saw it at sundown broad on the starboard bow. The
wind is due south. If you will pull in the trough of the sea we can
reach it before daylight. I am tired--so tired--and sleepy. Will you
watch out?"

"Why, certainly. Lie down in the stern-sheets and sleep if you can."

She curled up in her yellow oil-coat and slumbered through the night,
while he pulled easily on the oars--not that he had full faith in her
navigation, but to keep himself warm. The sea became smoother, and as
the moon rose higher, it attained a brightness almost equal to that of
the sun, casting over the clear sky a deep-blue tint that shaded
indefinitely into the darkness extending from itself to the horizon.
Late in the night he remembered the danger of sleeping in strong
moonlight, and arising softly to cover her face with his damp
handkerchief, he found her looking at him.

"We are almost there, John. Wake me when we arrive," she said, and
closed her eyes.

He covered her face, and, marveling at her words, looked ahead. He was
within a half-mile of a sandy beach which bordered a wooded island. The
sea was now like glass in its level smoothness, and the air was warm
and fragrant with the smell of flowers and foliage. He shipped the
oars, and pulled to the beach. As the boat grounded she arose, and he
helped her ashore.

The beach shone white under the moonlight, and dotting it were large
shellfish and moving crabs that scuttled away from them. Bordering the
beach were forest and undergrowth with interlacery of flowering vines.
A ridge of rocks near by disclosed caves and hollows, some filled by
the water of tinkling cascades. Oranges snowed in the branches of
trees, and cocoa-palms lifted their heads high in the distance. A
small deer arose, looked at them, and lay down, while a rabbit
inspected them from another direction and began nibbling.

"An earthly paradise, I should say," he observed, as he hauled the boat
up the beach. "Plenty of food and water, at any rate."

"It is Ilio Island," she answered, with that same dreamy voice. "It is
uninhabited and never visited."

"But surely, Freda, something will come along and take us off."

"No; if I am taken off I must be married, of course; and I will never
be married."

"Who to, Freda? Whom must you marry if we are rescued?"

"The mate--Mr. Adam