tting from the sunken
privateer, my lot would not have been so hard, for he would have
returned with the other survivors to Batchian; and from there, by
the weight of my poor father's name, I could easily have escaped to
Macassar, where my mother's relatives live."

"Do not fear then, Madam," said Channing kindly, "I shall leave you
now, but rest assured that a few hours hence you shall be among your
own countrymen once more." Then as two native women appeared, as if
searching for their mistress, he raised his hat and walked quickly away.

*****

Armand Le Mescam, with the bitterest rage depicted on his swarthy
features, rose to his feet, and instead of returning to his house went
slowly along towards one of his storehouses, without even glancing at
his wife, who stood watching him from where Channing had left her. In
a few moments she saw his figure vanishing among the palms, but not so
quickly but that she perceived he carried a musket.

His intention was easy to divine, and with a despairing look in her
eyes, she began to run after him, carrying the infant in her arms.

*****

Private Watts, meanwhile, had very much enjoyed himself with the
natives, who, by reason of the Polynesian strain in their blood, were
a merry, demonstrative, joyous people, unlike most of the Malayan race,
who are much the reverse, especially towards strangers. For some time
he had been watching the native boys throwing darts at a target, and
his attempts to emulate their skill aroused much childish merriment.
Suddenly the lengthening shadows of the surrounding palms recalled
him to the fact that it was getting late, so bidding goodbye to his
entertainers, he shouldered his fowling-piece and set off to meet his
master, taking the same path as that by which Lieutenant Channing had
left him. Half an hour's walk brought him to a spot where the path lay
between the thick forest jungle on one side and the open beach on the
other, with here and there jagged clumps of broken coral rock covered
with a dense growth of vines and creepers.

Three or four hundred yards away he could see the tall figure of
Lieutenant Channing walking quickly along the path; and so, sitting down
upon a little strip of grassy sward that skirted the beach side of the
track, the soldier awaited his master.

With the approach of sunset the wind had fallen, and though a mile or
two away the thundering surges leapt with loud and resounding clamour
upon the barrier reef,