traordinary
manner, and the pumps are choked. For your own safety I am sending you
and Mrs. Marston and your servants on shore. We are now just abreast of
Lotofanga, and I am going to try and work the schooner in there and run
her ashore on the beach."

Mrs. Raymond, now quite reassured, was at once practical. "We can be
ready in a minute, Mr. Villari. I will get little Loise, and----"

"Do--as quickly as you can--and I will tell Mrs. Marston. I preferred
letting you know first. She is very nervous, and it will allay her alarm
when she finds that you are so cool. The boat is already alongside. Have
you any valuables in your cabin? If so, get them together."

"Nothing but a little money. All my other things are on deck in a
trunk."

"That is already in the boat; the mate told me it was yours."

"Hurry up, please, ladies," and the mate's head appeared above the rail.

"Just another minute, Hutton," said Villari, as he, Mrs. Raymond, and
the Samoan girl all returned to the cabin together. The latter at once
picked up the sleeping Loise, and her mother, as she wrapped her in a
shawl, heard Villari rouse the girl Serena and tell her to awaken her
mistress, and presently she heard his voice speaking to Mrs. Marston
telling her not to be alarmed, but he feared the schooner might founder
at any moment, and that he was sending her and Mrs. Raymond on shore.

"Very well, Mr. Villari," she heard her friend say. "Have you told Mrs.
Raymond?"

"Yes," he replied. "She is getting ready now--in fact, she _is_ ready."
Then he returned to Mrs. Raymond's door, and met her just as she was
leaving the cabin with the nurse and child.

"Can I help you, Amy?" asked the planter's wife as she looked into Mrs.
Marston's cabin.

"No, dear. I did not quite undress, and I'll be ready in a minute. Baby
is fast asleep. Is Loise awake?"

"No, I'm glad to say. Olivee has her."

"Please come on, Mrs. Raymond," said Villari, somewhat impatiently; "go
on, Olivee, with the little girl."

He let them precede him, and almost before she knew it, Mrs. Raymond
found herself with the nurse and child in the boat, which was at once
pushed off and headed for the shore.

"Stop, stop!" cried the poor lady, clutching the mate by the arm. "Mrs.
Marston is coming."

"Can't wait," was the gruff rejoinder, and then, to her horror and
indignation, she saw that the boat's crew were pulling as if their lives
depended on their exertions.

"Shame, shame!" s