them go rocking down the dark way, and then sped off
across the headland towards Havre Gosselin. She got there just in time to
see a boat with two strong rowers plunging out into the Race past Pierre au
Norman, and knew that the boy was safe, and then she slipped and tumbled
down the zigzag to meet them when they came in. The boy would want his
clothes, and she wanted to see her boat. For of course it would be hers,
and now she would be able to come across from Brecqhou whenever she wished.

The matter was not settled quite so easily as that, however.

She was dancing eagerly among the big round stones on the shore of Havre
Gosselin, when the boat came in, with the cockleshell in tow and the small
boy sitting in it, with his chin on his knees and shaking still with
excitement and chills.

"All the same, mon gars, it was foolishness, for you might have been
drowned," said the older man of the two, as they drew in to the shore, and
the other man nodded agreement.

"I--w-w-wanted it for C-C-Carette," chittered the boy.

"Yes, yes, we know. But--And then there is M. le Seigneur, you understand."

"But, Monsieur Carre," cried the small girl remonstratively, "it would
never have come in if Phil had not gone for it. It would have got smashed
in the Gouliot or gone right past and been lost. And, besides, I do so want
it."

"All the same, little one, the Seigneur's rights must be respected. You'd
better go and tell him about it and ask him--"

"I will, mon Gyu!" and she was off up the zigzag before he had finished.

And it would have been a very different man from Peter le Pelley who could
refuse the beguilement of Carette's wistful dark eyes, when her heart was
set on her own way, as it generally was.

The Seigneur, indeed, had no special liking for the Le Marchants, who had
sat themselves down in his island of Brecqhou without so much as a
by-your-leave or thank you. Still, the island was of little use to him, and
to oust them would have been to incur the ill-will of men notorious for the
payment of scores in kind, so he suffered them without opposition.

Carette told us afterwards that the Seigneur stroked her hair, when she had
told all her story and proffered her request, assuring him at the same time
that the little boat would be of no use to him whatever, as it could not
possibly hold him.

"And what do you want with it, little one?" he asked.

"To come over from Brecqhou whenever I want, M. le Seigneur, if y