dwoman, with
more money than I know what to do with. And as for Jack Rogers, I'm
eloping with him to a coral island."

Mr. Rogers checked himself on the edge of a guffaw.

"But, I say, Lydia, you're not serious about this?" he asked.

"I don't know, Jack. I rather think I am. I'm getting an old woman,
mad or not; and the hours drag with me sometimes up at the house.
But"--and here she looked up with one of those rare smiles that set
you thinking she must have been pretty in her time--"there's this
advantage in having followed my own will for fifty years: that no one
any longer troubles to be surprised at anything I may do.
You're something of an eccentric yourself, Jack. You had better join
the picnic."

"I ought to warn you, ma'am," said Captain Branscome gravely, "that
although the West India route has been fairly well protected for some
months now, there _is_ a certain amount of risk from American
privateers."

"The Americans are a chivalrous nation, I have always heard."

"Extremely so, ma'am; nevertheless, there is a risk, in the event of
the packet being attacked. But I was about to say," pursued Captain
Branscome, "that our being at war with America may actually help us
to get across from Jamaica to the island. Quite a number of old
Colonial families--loyalists, as we should call them--have been
driven from time to time to cross over from the Main and settle in
the West Indies. But of course they have left kinsfolk behind them
in the States; and, in spite of wars and divisions, it is no unusual
thing for relatives to slip back and forth and visit one another--
secretly, you understand. I have even heard of an old lady, now or
until lately residing in St. Kitts, who has made no less than eleven
such voyages to the Delaware--whenever, in short, her daughter was
expecting an addition to her family."

"Good," said Miss Belcher. "I have found some one to impersonate;
and that settles it."

"I really think, ma'am," said Captain Branscome, "that, once in
Jamaica, we shall have no difficulty in finding, at the western end
of the island, just the ship we require."

"Bless my soul!" said Miss Belcher. "Except for the sea-voyage, it
might be a middle-aged jaunt in a po'-shay!"

[1] Miss Belcher was here employing a smuggling term. A "spotsman"
is the agent who arranges for a run of goods, and directs the
operation from the shore, without necessarily taking a part in it.

CHAPTER XXII.

A STR