what was of almost as much
importance, so far as her ultimate safety was concerned--himself.

It was a fortunate conjunction of circumstances that the savages had
chosen--doubtless for their own convenience--the time of full moon for
their raid, and night had scarcely fallen ere a brightening of the sky
in the eastern quarter proclaimed the advent of the "sweet regent of the
night." Leslie's island lay full in the wake of the rising orb; and for
nearly half an hour the catamaran scudded along within the shadow of the
peak, which stretched dark and clear-cut far over the ocean ahead of
her. Little by little the shadow shortened, however, and by-and-by the
catamaran slid over the edge of it as the gleaming disc emerged from
behind the northern edge of the peak, and flooded the whole of the sea
to the eastward with dancing streaks of glittering liquid silver.

It was about a quarter of an hour later that, as the catamaran rose upon
the back of a somewhat higher swell than usual, Leslie's quick eye
caught a momentary glimpse of a tiny white gleaming point straight
ahead; and his heart leaped with joy, for he knew that what he had seen
was the upper tip of the canoe's triangular sail. Greedily he watched
for its next appearance, rejoicing meanwhile in the knowledge that the
shadowed sides of his own sails were turned toward the flying canoe, and
that behind them again loomed up the dark background of the peak; it
would consequently need very sharp eyes--even though they should be
those of a savage--to descry them.

For twenty minutes or so following upon the first sighting of the chase
Leslie was able to catch only brief intermittent glimpses of the sail,
as one or the other of the flying craft was swept up on the crest of a
swell, but by the end of that time he had so far gained upon the canoe
that even when they both sank into the trough together he was still able
to see the upper part of the sail, while when both lifted simultaneously
he could see the whole of it, right down to the foot, and even
occasionally a glimpse of the heads of the savages; he estimated,
therefore, that he had closed the chase to within a distance of about a
mile.

Another quarter of an hour passed, at the expiration of which the canoe
was in full view, and Leslie now took the two repeating rifles with
which he had provided himself, and carefully loaded them both. But he
had no intention of opening fire at long range, the motion of both craf