and whistling her terror and amazement, the Queen of
Sheba appeared flying after the harassed old man.

It was a scene to surprise more than to entertain the beholder. The
avalanche promised disaster to the participants in it. Tons upon
tons of sand, undulating and sinuous in appearance, traveled faster
and yet faster behind the old gray mare and the gray old sea
captain. The smoke of the slide hid all that lay behind them, and
these wreaths of sand dust threatened a higher wave that might, at
any moment, entirely overwhelm both the equine and the human victim
of the catastrophe.

Tunis dropped his clam hoe and started for the dyke of sand on the
crest of which the old man and the old mare were sliding like
naughty children down a woodshed roof.

"Hey, Tunis! Tunis!" bawled the captain. "Take her off'n me! She'll
be afoul my hawser in another second, I do believe."

It was evident that he spoke of the Queen of Sheba, but Tunis could
not see how the mare was intentionally threatening Cap'n Ira's peace
of mind or safety of body. She was, however, "close aboard" Cap'n
Ira as he tobogganed down the sandy way.

"Stern all!" shouted the old man, throwing another startled,
backward glance at the Queen of Sheba. "Drat the derned old critter!
Don't she know nothin' at all? Tunis! Do you see what's goin' to
happen?"

While the young man had been running toward the ridge of sand, the
avalanche bearing Cap'n Ira and the Queen of Sheba on its bosom
swept down the slope of the huge windrow, but not altogether along
its spine. The mass slid over one pitch of the ridge, and suddenly,
following on the heels of Cap'n Ira's final question, the old man
was shot to the beach, several tons of loose sand and the snorting
mare almost on top of him.

In fact, he would have been overwhelmed, and perhaps seriously hurt,
had not Tunis Latham arrived at the spot at just the time Cap'n Ira
did, and suddenly pulled out the old man.

"What are you doing? Trying to run a race with Queenie?" demanded
the captain of the _Seamew_.

The mare had come down right side up, more by good luck than by good
management. She stood deep in the sand, her naturally surprised
expression vastly enhanced. In all her twenty-two years Queenie had
never before gone through such an experience.

"I swan!" ejaculated Cap'n Ira. "Ain't this the beatenest you ever
heard of, Tunis?"

Tunis stared from the old mare to the old mariner, especially at the
cocked revo