e you with them.
There's room enough on that yacht, and will be more; for Mr. Heming, the
gentleman that collects shells, is not coming back with them. They are
to put him off somewhere, and he is going home. I have an idea, though I
wasn't told so, that Miss Raynor is not coming back with the rest. She
brought very little baggage with her, but she took a lot of things on
board the yacht, and that looks as if she wasn't coming back. But, bless
me, they went off in such a hurry I didn't have time to ask questions."

I now turned to go, but the woman obliged me to inform her that I had
not come to camp on the island, and that I was staying with Captain
Jabe.

"When they go off in this way," she said, "they take the maids, and
leave me and my husband in charge; and if you should fancy to come here
and camp again, I know that Mrs. Raynor would wish me to make things as
comfortable for you as I can, which, too, I'll be very glad to do."

I thanked her, and went away. "This good woman," said I to myself, "is
the person who would have read my message to Sylvia, had I been foolish
enough to hang one to the twig of the tree."

XXXIV.

THE CENTRAL HOTEL.

Captain Jabez did not return until late that Saturday evening; but as
soon as he set foot on shore I went to him and asked him if he could, in
any way, get us to Sanpritchit that night, offering to pay him liberally
for the service.

"I've got a sailboat," said he, "and ye'd be right welcome to it if it
was here; but it ain't here. I lent it to Captain Neal, of Brimley,
having no present use for it, and he won't bring it back till next week
some time. There's a dory here, to be sure; but Sanpritchit's
twenty-five miles away, and that's too far to go in a dory, especially
at night. What's your hurry?"

"I have very important business in Sanpritchit," I answered, "and if it
is possible I must go there to-night."

"Sanpritchit's a queer place to have business in," said Captain Jabe;
"and it's a pity ye didn't think of it this mornin', when ye might have
gone with me and took the train to Barley, and there's a stage from
there to Sanpritchit."

"Captain Jabez," said I, "as there seems to be no other way for me to do
this thing, I will pay you whatever you may think the service worth, if
you will take me to Sanpritchit in your grocery boat, and start
immediately. It will be slow work traveling, I know, but I think we can
surely get there before morning."

The g