hing.

Her favourite day-dream of sailing away to a new strange country with
Bertie recurred to her. What if this was to be the fulfilment of it, and
they were to explore for ever an unknown land beyond the skies! But would
it be so? No sooner should the frail bark sink from under them than she
would feel Lascelles clutch her in a desperate grip, and be dragged
through the water, and placed alive, though half-suffocated, on the
shore. But Du Meresq would be sucked down in the blue lake, and travel to
that bourn alone.

Cecil shuddered, and formed a rapid resolve. "Who was Lascelles that he
should separate them? Let him save himself if he thought it worth while.
Whatever was Bertie's fate should be hers also."

Thus determined, Cecil waited for the end. She had only to elude
Lascelle's grasp at the critical moment, and her fate was as certain as
Du Meresq's. She gave a regretful thought to her father; but he had other
children, and Cecil had no strong family ties.

As she waited in a state of half exaltation, a quiet little thought crept
in,--how was it, after all this time, the boat still lived? Why they
could not be far from Coonwood! Lascelles was still baling, but Bertie,
from improved dexterity in the management of the sail, evaded the waves
more successfully.

Cecil continued to watch, and the tension of her mind yielded to a
flutter of hope as she saw the water no longer gained on them.

"We should be pretty near now," observed Lascelles.

"Yes, here we are!" rose in almost a shout of triumph from both, as, on
rounding the point, the wished-for harbour appeared in view. With one
last effort the envious waves dashed over, drenching them through and
through as they landed.

"A drop more or less doesn't much matter now," cried Cecil, gaily,
wringing her dripping garments. And they all shook hands in their elation
of spirits, with short expressions of relief, and congratulations at
their escape, which all confessed to have been in doubt of at one time.

"You are a regular heroine, Miss Rolleston," said Lascelles, heartily.
"If you had jumped up, or gone into hysterics, as some girls would, we
should have gone under pretty soon. As it was, I thought I had my work
cut out, for do you know that Du Meresq can't swim?"

"Yes, I know," grudgingly, for she could not bear Bertie to be at a
disadvantage. "But I am sure it is quite miraculous how he managed the
sail through that squall."

"Only if we had swamped, L