and by its light the girl saw a short, stout man
step out on to the beach and walk up to the officer in charge of the
shore party.

"Ah, Adams, is that you? Well, this is a devil of a place. We have
crossed at least half a dozen of these cursed gutters, and thought to
have crossed this one too, without trouble, but the tide is coming in
fast. However, it's the last one--at least so this infernal hang-dog
looking native guide tells me. So the sooner we get across in the cutter
and get this man-hunting business over the better I'll like it."

"Aye, aye, sir!" answered the man he had addressed as Adams. "It won't
take us much longer, I guess. Not a canoe has passed us going down the
coast, so we are pretty sure to catch him at home."

"That is what this truculent scoundrel says," and the officer nodded in
the direction of a native who had seated himself on the ground only a
few yards distant from the rock behind which the girl was hidden.
"He tells me that young Swain came home about a week ago from
Maiana"--another island of the group--"and the old man induced him to
stay at home and help him rig a new boat he has just built."

"We'll catch him, sir," answered Adams, confidently.

Clutching the side of the rough boulder in an agony of terror, the girl
saw the two men turn away, and, followed by the rest of the shore party,
natives and all, walk down to the boat. Then, standing upright, she
watched them get in and the cutter shove off.

That they were in search of her brother she was now only too certain,
and dreading that the boat would land the shore party again on her
side of the channel and she be discovered and prevented from giving the
alarm, she sprang over the loose slabs of coral that strewed the
shore between the water and the coconut palms, and fled along the
night-enshrouded path towards her father's house.

Ere she had gained the level ground the clattering sound made by the
displaced coral stones reached the ears of those in the boat, which
was instantly headed for shore, and the officer, with eight or ten
bluejackets, leapt out and, led by the native guides, followed in swift
pursuit.

III.

Within the trader's house the father and son sat smoking in silence,
waiting for the girl's return. A coconut-oil lamp, placed in the centre
of a table, showed that the evening meal was in readiness.

"Em's a powerful long time, Jim," said the old man, rising from his
seat, and, going to the door, he l