pany
accounts, and she was left to enjoy the splendour of the day, to watch
the iron-red waters piling up against the _Wiggle's_ bows, to feel the
cool breezes that swept down from the far-away mountains, and all this
without being under the necessity of making conversation with Bones.

That gentleman had a no less profitable morning, for Ali Abid was a
methodical and clerkly man, and unearthed the missing thirty-nine
dollars in the Compensation Record.

"Thank goodness!" said Bones, relieved. "You're a jolly old accountant,
Ali. I'd never have found it."

"Sir," said Ali, "some subjects, by impetuous application, omit vision
of intricate detail. This is due to subjects' lack of concentration."

"Have it your way," said Bones, "but get the statement out for me to
copy."

He awoke the girl from a profound reverie--which centred about shy and
solemn bachelors who adopted whole nations of murderous children as
their own--and proceeded to "take charge."

This implied the noisy issuing of orders which nobody carried out, the
manipulation of a telescope, anxious glances at the heavens, deep and
penetrating scrutinies of the water, and a promenade back and forward
from one side of the launch to the other. Bones called this "pacing the
bridge," and invariably carried his telescope tucked under his arm in
the process, and, as he had to step over Pat's feet every time, and
sometimes didn't, she arrested his nautical wanderings.

"You make me dizzy," she said. "And isn't that the island?"

* * * * *

In the early hours of the afternoon they re-embarked, the _capita_ of
the village coming to the beach to see them off.

They brought back with them a collection of spear-heads, gruesome
execution knives, elephant swords, and wonder-working steel figures.

"And the lunch was simply lovely, Bones," agreed the girl, as the
_Wiggle_ turned her nose homeward. "Really, you can be quite clever
sometimes."

"Dear old Miss Hamilton," said Bones, "you saw me to-day as I really am.
The mask was off, and the real Bones, kindly, thoughtful, considerate,
an'--if I may use the word without your foundin' any great hope upon
it--tender. You saw me free from carkin' care, alert----"

"Go along and finish your accounts, like a good boy," she said. "I'm
going to doze."

Doze she did, for it was a warm, dozy afternoon, and the boat was
running swiftly and smoothly with the tide. Bones yawned and wrote,
copy