s they are so fond of; and off they went, in less than two hours."

"How long do they expect to be gone?" I asked.

"Mrs. Raynor told me they would be away probably for a week or two," the
woman answered, "and she would stop somewhere and telegraph to me when
she was coming back. Of course there isn't any telegraph to this island,
but when messages come to Brimley they send them over in a boat."

Having determined to speak to Mrs. Raynor, and having set out to do so,
this undertaking appeared to me the most important thing in the world,
and one in which I must press forward, without regard to obstacles of
any kind.

"Are they going to any particular place?" I said. "Are they going to
stop anywhere?"

"There is only one place that I know of," she answered, "and that's
Sanpritchit, over on the mainland. They expect to stop there to get
provisions for the cruise, for there was but little here that they could
take with them. They wanted to get there before dark, and I don't doubt
but that, with this wind, they'll do it. If you'll step to this end of
the piazza, sir, perhaps you can see their topsail. I saw it just before
you came, as they were beginning to make the long tack."

"Yes, there it is," she continued, when we reached the place referred
to, from which a vast stretch of the bay could be seen, "but not so much
of it as I saw just now."

"Their topsail!" I ejaculated.

"Yes, sir," she said. "You can't see their mainsail, because they are so
far away, and it's behind the water, in a manner."

I stood silent for a few minutes, gazing at the little ship. Suddenly a
thought struck me. "Do you think they will sail on Sunday?" I asked.

"No, sir," she replied; "Mrs. Raynor never sails on Sunday. And that's
why I wondered, after they'd gone, why they'd started off on a Saturday.
They will have to lay up at Sanpritchit all day to-morrow; and it seems
to me it would have been a great deal pleasanter for them to stay here
Sunday, and to have started on Monday. There's no church at Sanpritchit,
or anything for them to do, so far as I know, unless Miss Raynor reads
sermons to them, which she never did here, though she's a religious
sister, which perhaps you didn't know, sir."

"Sanpritchit over Sunday," I repeated to myself.

"It's the greatest pity," said the woman, "that they didn't know you and
the other gentleman--that is, if he is with you--were coming back
to-day, for I am sure they would have been glad to tak