those left on board had entered on another
day! How little she had thought that to be possible when the awful
knowledge first came to her that the _Kansas_ was ashore! How long ago
was that? Then she remembered that when Courtenay placed her in his
cabin with the promise to bring Isobel to her, she had noticed the
time--eleven o'clock. Was it conceivable that only one hour had
elapsed since she and her four-footed friend were flung all of a heap
into a corner by the impact of the vessel against the sand-bank? One
hour! Surely there was some mistake; she puzzled over the problem,
recounting each event since the conclusion of dinner, and finally
convinced herself that her recollection was not at fault. An hour--one
of eternity's hours! A verse of the 90th Psalm came to her mind:

"For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is
past, and as a watch in the night."

The words had a new and solemn meaning to her. Yesterday was her
thousand years--this was her watch in the night--and it would pass as a
tale that is told. Involuntarily she turned to the bookcase behind
her, and took the Bible from the little library of books which she had
laughingly described as "a curious assortment." It was her intent to
find the psalm containing that awe-inspiring verse, and read the whole
of it, but, in turning over the leaves, she came upon a scrap of paper
with notes on it. The handwriting was scholarly and legible. She
thought that Captain Courtenay would probably write just such a hand.
Though her cheeks tingled a little at the memory of the words in his
sister's letter, there was no harm in reading a memorandum evidently
intended to mark a passage in the book. The items were sufficiently
striking:--"Meribah--a place of strife; Selah--a repetition, or sort of
musical _da capo_."

This stirred her to seek an explanation. She searched the two pages
which opened at the marker, and, in the seventh verse of the 81st
Psalm, she found the key:

"Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the
secret place of thunder; I proved thee at the waters of Meribah.
Selah."

The phrases were strangely appropriate to her present environment.
They were almost prophetic, and there was even a sinister sound in the
concluding instruction to the "chief musician upon Gittith" in this
psalm of Asaph. That was the terrible feature of her vigil. There was
no knowing when or how it would end. She c