place by," said Roger. "He says it's
nothing, and I hope that's the truth" (he actually did hope it now, at
least for the moment); "as for me, I believe they've saved the yacht's
barber a little trouble in cutting my hair on the left side, that's all;
luckily no harm done to any of our men."

All these scraps of conversation had been flung backward and forward
inside five minutes. Then they were at the yacht's side. Maxime, forced
to yield to his own weakness in the reaction now, was being helped on
board, the others following.

A slim, white figure, ethereal and spirit-like in the sheen of the moon,
was waiting to give them welcome. Virginia stood on deck, weeping and
laughing, Dr. Grayle by her side.

"Thank heaven! Thank heaven!" she sobbed at sight of Maxime. The cry was
for him, the look, the tears, the clasped hands, all for him. Roger and
George came together for her in a second thought, and Roger knew; though
he was not surprised, because he had guessed her secret, such joy of
success as even he, being a man, had felt, was blotted out for him.

* * * * *

Down below, locked into their staterooms, Lady Gardiner and the Countess
de Mattos had passed a strange and terrible hour, each in a different
way.

To Kate there was little mystery, though much fear. She had sulkily shut
herself up, and, not dreaming what was appointed for the night, had
finally dropped asleep, while meditating reprisals for the bad treatment
she had received that day. But though her suspicions had not gone as far
as an actual rescue in dramatic fashion, with the first shot from the
prison boat which woke her from a sound sleep, she divined what was
happening. Bounding from her berth, while hardly yet awake, she darted to
her porthole, which was wide open. It faced the wrong way to afford her a
glimpse of what was going on, but she could hear more firing at a
distance, doubtless at the prison on the Ile Nou, the ringing of bells,
and much tramping overhead on the deck of the yacht. She felt the throb
of the engine too, and though the _Bella Cuba_ had been lying quietly at
anchor in the harbour when Kate had fallen asleep, now she was moving at
a rapid rate through the water, which gurgled past her sides.

Kate had known, of course, that they had not come thousands of miles for
nothing, and the moment she was certain that New Caledonia was to be the
_Bella Cuba's_ destination she realized that an attempt w