ere was a kind of
nobility about him, as of a man who has lived and fought with the big
things of the earth.

Madge looked at him beseechingly just before they arrived at their skiff.
Now, when Madge desired anything very greatly she was hard to resist. Her
blue eyes wore their most bewitching expression. "Please," she faltered,
"I want you to do me a favor. I know I have no right to ask it, but,
but----"

"What is it?" inquired Captain Jules, smiling.

"Have you your diving suit?" asked Madge. "If you have, and you would
show it to me some day, I would be too happy for words." Madge blushed at
her own temerity.

The captain shook his head. There was little encouragement in his
expression. "Maybe, some day," he replied vaguely; "but I have had the
suit put away for some time. Who knows when I will go down into the sea
again? Be careful in that small skiff," he warned the girls. "There are
so many launches about on these waters, run by men and women that don't
know the very first principles of running a boat, that a small craft like
yours may easily drift into danger. You must look lively."

The girls waved their good-byes as Madge and Phil pulled away. Madge
noticed that the old sailor stared curiously at her, and every now and
then he shook his head and frowned. Madge supposed it was because she had
been so bold as to ask a favor of a perfect stranger. Yet, if she could
only see Captain Jules again and he might be persuaded to show her his
diving suit and to tell her something of the strange business of
pearl-fishing, she couldn't be really sorry for her impudence. This
accidental meeting with an old sailor inspired Madge afresh with her love
of the sea and the mystery of it. She could not get the man out of her
mind, nor her own desire to see him soon again and to ask him more
questions.

As for Captain Jules, when the girls had fairly gone he lighted his pipe
and strode along the line of the shore. "It's a funny thing, Madge," he
said, addressing the monkey, "but when a man gets an idea in his head,
everything and everybody he sees seems to start the same old idea
a-going. I wish I had asked her to tell me her surname. I wonder if she
is the real Madge?"

CHAPTER VIII

THE WRECK OF THE "WATER WITCH"

The girls began their row to the "Merry Maid" with all speed. They had
had such an interesting morning that they did not realize how the time
had flown. They did not know the exact hour now, but they