f echini; sometimes a dead scarus
fish, its stomach distended with bits of coral on which it had been
feeding; crabs, sea urchins, sea-weeds of strange colour and shape;
star-fish, some tiny and of the colour of cayenne pepper, some huge and
pale. These and a thousand other things, beautiful or strange, were to
be found on the reef.

Dick had laid his spear down, and was exploring a deep bath-like pool.
He had waded up to his knees, and was in the act of wading further when
he was suddenly seized by the foot. It was just as if his ankle had
been suddenly caught in a clove hitch and the rope drawn tight. He
screamed out with pain and terror, and suddenly and viciously a
whip-lash shot out from the water, lassoed him round the left knee,
drew itself taut, and held him.

CHAPTER IV

WHAT BEAUTY CONCEALED

Emmeline, seated on the coral rock, had almost forgotten Dick for a
moment. The sun was setting, and the warm amber light of the sunset
shone on reef and rock-pool. Just at sunset and low tide the reef had a
peculiar fascination for her. It had the low-tide smell of sea-weed
exposed to the air, and the torment and trouble of the breakers seemed
eased. Before her, and on either side, the foam-dashed coral glowed in
amber and gold, and the great Pacific came glassing and glittering in,
voiceless and peaceful, till it reached the strand and burst into song
and spray.

Here, just as on the hill-top at the other side of the island, you
could mark the rhythm of the rollers. "Forever, and forever--forever,
and forever," they seemed to say.

The cry of the gulls came mixed with the spray on the breeze. They
haunted the reef like uneasy spirits, always complaining, never at
rest; but at sunset their cry seemed farther away and less melancholy,
perhaps because just then the whole island world seemed bathed in the
spirit of peace.

She turned from the sea prospect and looked backwards over the lagoon
to the island. She could make out the broad green glade beside which
their little house lay, and a spot of yellow, which was the thatch of
the house, just by the artu tree, and nearly hidden by the shadow of
the breadfruit. Over woods the fronds of the great cocoa-nut palms
showed above every other tree silhouetted against the dim, dark blue of
the eastern sky.

Seen by the enchanted light of sunset, the whole picture had an unreal
look, more lovely than a dream. At dawn--and Dick would often start for
the reef before