journey shorewards. Then Isobel,
glancing furtively at her companion, saw the tears stealing down her
cheeks, and the situation came back from the transcendental to that
which was intelligible to her lower ideals.

"I am sorry," she whispered, catching Elsie's hand timidly. "I said
what I thought was for the best. At any rate, it is too late now."

Too late! The other girl groped blindly for the door. She felt that
she would yield to the strain if she did not go on deck and catch a
parting glimpse of the man who had become dearer to her than life
itself. As she made her way forward, Joey ran to meet her. He was
whining anxiously. He seemed to be demanding that sympathy which she
alone could give him. In his half-human way, he was asking:

"Why has my master gone away in that boat? And why did he not take me
with him? When my master goes ashore he never leaves me on board; what
is the reason of to-day's exception?"

On the poop she found Boyle, Christobal, Gray and Walker. A number of
Chileans were leaning over the rails of the main deck. All the men
were talking earnestly. It was ominous that they should cease their
conversation the instant she appeared. One man may conceal his fears,
but twenty cannot. Their studied unconcern, their covert glances under
lowered eye-lids, told her that they believed the occupants of the
life-boat were in gravest peril.

She brushed away the tears determinedly, and looked at the boat,
already a white speck on the green carpet of the bay. She could see
Courtenay distinctly; some magnetic impulse must have gone out from
her, because she had not been watching him longer than a couple of
seconds when he turned and waved his hand. She replied instantly,
fluttering a handkerchief, poor girl, long after it became impossible
for her to distinguish whether or not he returned her signals. In the
calm glory of the sunlit estuary, he might have been bent on a pleasant
picnic. It was outrageous to think of Good Hope Inlet as a place of
skulls; yet she knew that the sea floor beneath the ship was already
littered with bodies of the dead. Women would wait in vain for their
men to return; why should she be spared?

At last she appealed to Mr. Boyle, who was nearest to her.

"Who is sitting next to Captain Courtenay?" she asked, and she had a
fleeting impression that he was anxious for her to speak, so quickly
did he answer.

"Tollemache. He shinned down the ladder as the f