it pulled
away from the ship.

"Can you make out the captain?" cried Ralph, at her side.

She shook her head, and handed him the glass. For full five minutes the
boy peered through it, and then he lowered the glass.

"Edna," said he, "he isn't in it."

"What!" exclaimed Mrs. Cliff, "do you mean to say that the captain is not
in that boat?"

"I am sure of it," said Ralph. "And if he isn't in the boat, of course he
is not on the ship. Perhaps he did not have anything to do with that
vessel's coming here. It may have been tacking in this direction, and so
come near enough for people to see my signal."

"Don't suppose things," said Edna, a little sharply. "Wait until the boat
comes in, and then we will know all about it.--Here, Cheditafa," said
she, "you and Mok go out into the water and help run that boat ashore as
soon as it is near enough."

It was a large boat containing five men, and when it had been run up on
the sand, and its occupants had stepped out, the man at the tiller, who
proved to be the second mate of the bark, came forward and touched his
hat. As he did so, no sensible person could have imagined that he had
accidentally discovered them. His manner plainly showed that he had
expected to find them there. The conviction that this was so made the
blood run cold in Edna's veins. Why had not the captain come himself?

The man in command of the boat advanced toward the two ladies, looking
from one to the other as he did so. Then, taking a letter from the
pocket of his jacket, he presented it to Edna.

"Mrs. Horn, I believe," he said. "Here is a letter from your husband."

Now, it so happened that to Mrs. Cliff, to Edna, and to Ralph this
recognition of matrimonial status seemed to possess more force and value
than the marriage ceremony itself.

Edna's face grew as red as roses as she took the letter.

"From my husband," she said; and then, without further remark, she
stepped aside to read it.

But Mrs. Cliff and Ralph could not wait for the reading of the letter.
They closed upon the mate, and, each speaking at the same moment,
demanded of him what had happened to Captain Horn, why he had not come
himself, where he was now, was this ship to take them away, and a dozen
similar questions. The good mariner smiled at their impatience, but could
not wonder at it, and proceeded to tell them all he knew about Captain
Horn and his plans.

The captain, he said, had arrived at Callao some time since, and
i