are. He was alone when the music of the chains in the hawse-pipes
sounded in his ears. The _Kansas_ had plenty of room to swing, but he
thought it best to moor her. Believing implicitly now that he would
yet bring his vessel into the Thames, he allowed her to be carried
round by the fast-flowing tide until her nose pointed seaward, and she
lay in the comparatively still water inshore. Then he dropped the
second anchor and stepped forth from the chart-house. His long vigil
was ended. Some of the cloud of care lifted from his face, and he
called cheerily to Joey.

"Come along, pup," he said. "Let us sample Dr. Christobal's cookery.
You have shared my watch; now you shall share my breakfast. We have
both earned it."

It was in his mind to knock loudly on Elsie's door and awaken her;
therefore he was dimly conscious of a feeling of disappointment when he
saw her, in company with Christobal, leaning over the rail of the
promenade deck, and evidently discussing the weird beauty of the scene
spread before her wondering eyes.

The ship was now so sheltered by the shoulder of the southern cape that
the keen breeze yet rushing in from the sea passed hundreds of feet
above her masts. There was nothing more than a tidal swell on the
surface of the water, in which the heavy-laden vessel rested as in a
dock. In the new and extraordinary quietude the light thud of the
donkey-engine sounded with a strange distinctness, and Elsie and her
companion heard Courtenay's approaching footsteps almost as soon as he
gained the deck.

Instantly she ran towards him, with hands out-stretched.

"Let me be the first to congratulate you," she cried, her cheeks
mantling with a rush of color and her lips quivering with excitement.
"How wonderful of you to bring the ship through all those awful reefs
and things! No; you must not say you have done nothing marvelous. Dr.
Christobal has told me everything. Next to Providence, Captain
Courtenay, we owe our lives to you."

Courtenay felt it would hurt her were he to smile at her earnestness.
But he did say:

"Surely it is not so very remarkable that I should do my best to
safeguard the ship and such of her passengers and crew as survive last
night's ordeal."

"I know that quite well. Even I would have striven to help when my
life was at stake. But the really wonderful thing is that you should
have guessed an unknown track in the dark; that you should actually be
able to guide a helpl