ed. So I made a day's voyage, and still ate my
three squares a day. That was encouraging."

"I knew all the time it wasn't the voyage that wrecked your stomach,"
said Patsy confidently.

"What was it, then?"

"Ptomaine poisoning, or something like that."

"Well, anyhow, I found I could stand ocean travel again, so I determined
on a voyage. The Panama Canal was just opened and I passed through it,
came up the Atlantic coast, and--the _Arabella_ is at this moment safely
anchored in the North River!"

"And how do you feel?" inquired Uncle John.

"Glorious--magnificent! The trip has sealed my recovery for good."

"But why didn't you go home, to your Island of Sangoa?" asked Beth.

He looked at her reproachfully.

"_You_ were not there, Beth; nor was Patsy, or Uncle John. On the other
hand, there is no one in Sangoa who cares a rap whether I come home or
not. I'm the last of the Joneses of Sangoa, and while it is still my
island and the entire population is in my employ, the life there flows
on just as smoothly without me as if I were present."

"But don't they need the ship--the _Arabella_?" questioned Beth.

"Not now. I sent a cargo of supplies by Captain Carg when he made his
last voyage to the island, and there will not be enough pearls found in
the fisheries for four or five months to come to warrant my shipping
them to market. Even then, they would keep. So I'm a free lance at
present and I had an idea that if I once managed to get the boat around
here you folks might find a use for it."

"In what way?" inquired Patsy, with interest.

"We might all make a trip to Barbadoes, Bermuda and Cuba. Brazil is said
to be an interesting country. I'd prefer Europe, were it not for the
war."

"Oh, Ajo, isn't this war terrible?"

"No other word expresses it. Yet it all seems like a fairy tale to me,
for I've never been in any other country than the United States since I
made my first voyage here from Sangoa--the island where my eyes first
opened to the world."

"It isn't a fairy tale," said Beth with a shudder. "It's more like a
horrible nightmare."

"I can't bear to read about it any more," he returned, musingly. "In
fact, I've only been able to catch rumors of the progress of the war in
the various ports at which I've touched, and I came right here from my
ship. But I've no sympathy with either side. The whole thing annoys me,
somehow--the utter uselessness and folly of it all."

"Maubeuge has fallen," said