e the breath out of her, but she was growing so accustomed to
deeds of violence that she did not even scream.

"There is a British chaplain at Pernambuco," was Philip's incoherent
remark.

"I must ask my uncle," she gasped.

"No. Leave that to me. No man living shall say 'Yes' or 'No' to me
where you are concerned, Iris."

"Do not be hard with him, Philip dear. He was always good to me,
and--and--I have grown a wee bit afraid of you."

"Afraid!"

"Yes. You are so much older, so much sterner, than when you and I
looked at the Southern Cross together from the bridge of the
_Andromeda_."

"I was a boy then, Iris. I am a man now. I have fought, and loved,
and suffered. And what of you, dear heart? We went through the
furnace hand in hand. What of the girl who has come forth a woman?"

There was an open window at the end of the passage. Watts had bought,
or borrowed, or looted a bottle of wine. Schmidt and he were in a
shaded arbor beneath, and his voice came to them:

"It is always fair weather
When good fellows meet together . . ."

But another voice, hoarse as a foghorn, boomed through the door which
Iris had left ajar.

"Bring 'er in 'ere, you swab. D--n your eyes, if you come courtin' my
nurse, you'll 'ave to do it in my room or not at all. Wot the----"

"Come in, dear," said Iris. "The doctor says he is not to excite
himself. And he will be so glad to see you. He has been asking for
you all day."

* * * * * *

At Pernambuco, his excellency the President of the Republic of Brazil
was waited on by Admiral Prince Heinrich von Schnitzenhausen, who was
attended by an imposing armed guard. After compliments, the admiral
stated that his Imperial master wished to be informed as to the truth
or otherwise of a circumstantial statement made by the German Consul at
Maceio, and confirmed by functionaries at Pernambuco, that on a certain
date, to wit, September the 2d, he, Dom Corria De Sylva, aided and
abetted by a number of filibusters, did unlawfully seize and
sequestrate the steamship _Unser Fritz_, the said steamship being the
property of German subjects and flying the German flag.

Though the admiral's sentence was much longer than its English
translation, it only contained a dozen words. Its sound was fearsome
in consequence, and its effect ought to have been portentous. But Dom
Corria was unmoved.

"There is some mistake," said he.

"Exactly," sa