vagaries, our young
navigator felt would be beyond his skill. The only thing he could do was
to take the shorter course of about three miles to Killykinick, and send
off Jim and Dud in their rented boat (which had a motor) for a doctor.
Then he could explain Freddy's absence to Brother Bart, and hurry back to
his little chum.

Wind and tide, however, were both against these well-laid plans to-day.
The wind was bad enough, but now even the waves seemed to have a strange
swell, different from the measured rise and fall he knew. It was as if
their far-off depths were rising, stirring out of their usual calm. They
no longer tossed their snowy crests in the summer sunlight, but surged and
swayed in low, broken lines, white-capped with fitful foam. And the
voice--the song of the sea--that had been a very lullaby to Dan as he
swung every night in his hammock beneath the stars, had a hoarse, fierce
tone, like a sob of passion or pain. Altogether, Dan and his boat had a
very hard pull over the three miles to Killykinick.

"Thar they come!" said Captain Jeb, who, with Brother Bart, was watching
from the beach. "I told you you could count on Mate Dan, Padre. Thar the
lads come, safe and sound; though they hed a pull against the wind, I bet.
But here they come all right."

"God be thanked for that same!" said Brother Bart, reverently. "My heart
has been nearly leaping out of my breast this last half hour. And you
weren't over-easy about them yourself, as I could see, Jeroboam."

"Wall, I'm glad to see the younkers safe back, I must say," agreed Captain
Jeb, in frank relief. "Thar was nothing to skeer about when they started
this morning, but that bank of cloud wasn't in sight then. My but it come
up sudden! It fairly took my breath when Neb pointed it out to me. That ar
marline spike didn't hurt his weather eye. 'Hurricane,' he says to me;
'straight up from the West Indies, and them boys is out!' I tell you it
did give me a turn--aye, aye matey!" as Dan came hurrying up the beach.
"Ye made it all right again wind an' tide--but where's the other?"

"Laddie,--my laddie!" cried Brother Bart, his ruddy face paling. "Speak
up, Dan Dolan! Has harm come to him?"

"No, no, no!" answered Dan eagerly, "no harm at all, Brother Bart. He is
safe and sound. Don't scare, Brother Bart." And then as briefly as he
could Dan told the adventure of the morning.

"And you left laddie, that lone innocent, with a dying man?" said Brother
Bart. "Su