mer.

Only another ten yards, when, as if aware of the awful fate that awaited
her, Mahia half raised herself, and with dying strength held the child
out almost clear of the water. And then, as her panting bosom wailed out
her husband's name for the last time, there pealed out upon the ocean a
shriek of mortal agony, and he saw her drop the infant and disappear
in a swirl of eddying foam. Ere that awful cry had ceased to vibrate
through the morning air, a native had sprung from the canoe and seized
the drowning child, and the agonised father, looking down into the blue
depths, saw a running streak of bubbling white five fathoms beneath.
Again the native dived, and followed the wavering track of white, and
presently, not fifty feet away, they saw him rise with the woman on his
arm, her long black hair twining around his brawny neck and shoulders.

"By God, he's saved her!" cried the mate, as both his boat and Brandon's
canoe reached the native simultaneously, and they reached out their
hands to take hold of the motionless figure.

"Paranta, turn thy eyes away," said a native, and flinging his arms
around the white man, he forced his face away as the diver and his
burden were lifted into the boat.

A shuddering sob stirred the frame of the mate or the brigantine when he
saw that only the upper half of the woman's body was left.

II.

With the captain of the sandal-wooder, the broken-hearted wanderer, had
taken passage, and one day, as he watched the movements of his child as
it frolicked with the rough seamen of the brigantine, the haunting
fear of discovery returned to him in all its first force of three years
before. A kindly remark made by the rough but good-natured skipper led
him to reveal his story, and the seaman's face fell when the deserter
asked him if he thought it possible he could ever return to England with
safety.

"No, I don't. You _might_ but I can tell you that a man with a figure
like you--6 ft. 1 in. if you're an inch, and with a cut across the
face--wouldn't miss being found out. And look here, 'tisn't even safe
for you to come to Singapore. There's many a King's ship around these
parts, and the chances are that some of the company of any one of 'em
would recognise you--and you know what that means. If I were in your
place I would try and get away in an American whaler. Once in America
you'll be safe enough. The best I can do for you is to put you ashore
at the Bonin Islands. There's bou