abe and his man were
equally astonished, and I should have feared that you had fallen
overboard, if a man, who had come on the boat at a little pier where we
had stopped very early in the morning, had not assured us that he had
seen you go ashore at that place, but had not thought it worth while to
mention so commonplace an occurrence. I wished to put back to the pier,
but it was then far behind us, and Captain Jabe positively refused to do
so. Both wind and tide would be against us, he said; and if you chose to
go ashore without saying anything to anybody, that was your affair, and
not his. I thought it possible you might have become tired with the slow
progress of his vessel, and had left it, to hire a horse, to get to
Sanpritchit before we did.

"When we reached Sanpritchit and you were not there, I was utterly
unable to understand the situation; but Mrs. Raynor's yacht was there,
just on the point of sailing, and I considered it my duty, as your
representative, to hasten on board, and to apprise the lady that you
were on your way to see her. Of course she wanted to know why you were
coming, and all that; and as you were not there to do it yourself, I
told her the nature of your errand, and impressed upon her the
importance of delaying her departure until she had seen you and had
heard what you had to say. She did not agree with me that the interview
would be of importance to any one concerned, but she consented to wait
for a time and see you. If you arrived, she agreed to meet you on shore;
for she would not consent to your coming on board the yacht, where her
daughter was. I went ashore, and waited there with great impatience
until early in the afternoon, when a boy arrived, who said he had
started to bring you to Sanpritchit, but that you had changed your mind,
and he had conveyed you to a railroad station, where you had taken a
western-bound train.

"I went to the yacht to report. I think Mrs. Raynor was relieved at your
non-arrival; and as she knew I wished to join you as soon as possible,
she invited me to sail with them to a little town on the coast,--I
forget its name,--from which I could reach the railroad much quicker
than from Sanpritchit."

"She did not object, then," said I, "to your being on the yacht with her
daughter?"

"Oh, no," he answered, "for she found that Miss Raynor did not know me,
or at least recognize me, and had no idea that I was in any way
connected with you. Of course I accepted Mr