low; and here and there, in the
shallows, you might see a faint tracery of coral ribs almost reaching
the surface. The island at its broadest might have been three miles
across. There was not a sign of house or habitation to be seen, and not
a sail on the whole of the wide Pacific.

It was a strange place to be, up here. To find oneself surrounded by
grass and flowers and trees, and all the kindliness of nature, to feel
the breeze blow, to smoke one's pipe, and to remember that one was in a
place uninhabited and unknown. A place to which no messages were ever
carried except by the wind or the seagulls.

In this solitude the beetle was as carefully painted and the flower as
carefully tended as though all the peoples of the civilised world were
standing by to criticise or approve.

Nowhere in the world, perhaps, so well as here, could you appreciate
Nature's splendid indifference to the great affairs of Man.

The old sailor was thinking nothing of this sort. His eyes were fixed
on a small and almost imperceptible stain on the horizon to the
sou'-sou'-west. It was no doubt another island almost hull-down on the
horizon. Save for this blemish the whole wheel of the sea was empty and
serene.

Emmeline had not followed them up to the rock. She had gone botanising
where some bushes displayed great bunches of the crimson arita berries
as if to show to the sun what Earth could do in the way of
manufacturing poison. She plucked two great bunches of them, and with
this treasure came to the base of the rock.

"Lave thim berries down!" cried Mr Button, when she had attracted his
attention. "Don't put thim in your mouth; thim's the never-wake-up
berries."

He came down off the rock, hand over fist, flung the poisonous things
away, and looked into Emmeline's small mouth, which at his command she
opened wide. There was only a little pink tongue in it, however, curled
up like a rose-leaf; no sign of berries or poison. So, giving her a
little shake, just as a nursemaid would have done in like
circumstances, he took Dick off the rock, and led the way back to the
beach.

CHAPTER XIV

ECHOES OF FAIRY-LAND

"Mr Buttons," said Emmeline that night, as they sat on the sand near
the tent he had improvised, "Mr Button--cats go to sleep."

They had been questioning him about the "never-wake-up" berries.

"Who said they didn't?" asked Mr Button.

"I mean," said Emmeline, "they go to sleep and never wake up again.
Ours did. I