all going home in a few weeks, and then you can
have the island quite to yourself again."

"Suppose I were to regard you as surety for the good behaviour of the
rest of the tribe," said the colonel: "would you undertake that no rare
or cherished plants should be uprooted or any damage inflicted during
your tenancy?"

"We wouldn't touch anything," declared Isobel, "we've only taken the
blackberries because there are so many of them. I know you're thinking
of the maidenhair. Oh, please, is it growing? I do so hope it wasn't
spoilt."

"Yes, it's growing. I really don't believe it has suffered very much,
after all. I took a look at it this morning, and found the young fronds
pushing up as well as if they had never been disturbed."

"I'm _so_ glad!" said Isobel, with a sigh of relief; "I've often thought
about it since. It's very kind of you to say we may stay here; it would
have seemed so hard to turn out after we'd had the trouble of building
the hut."

"But what about the rent?" inquired the colonel; "will you be answerable
for its proper payment? I may prove as tough a customer as old Shylock,
and insist on my pound of flesh."

"We've very little money, I'm afraid," said Isobel timidly; "we spent
all the club funds on buying the kettle and the frying-pan--even what
we'd saved up for a feast at the end of the holidays. I've only got
threepence left myself, though perhaps some of the others may have
more."

"I must take it in kind, then--the sort of tribute that is exacted from
native chiefs in Central Africa--though you can't bring me pounds of
rubber or elephants' tusks here."

"We could pick you blackberries, if you like them," suggested Isobel;
"or get you cockles and mussels from the shore. Sometimes the boys spear
flukes. They're rather small and muddy, but they're quite nice to eat
with bread and butter if you fry them yourself."

"My consumption of blackberries is limited," replied the colonel, "and
there seems slight demand for shell-fish in my kitchen. The flukes might
have done; but if they are only edible when you fry them yourself, I'm
afraid it's no use, for I don't believe my housekeeper would allow me to
try. No! I must think out the question of tribute, and let you know. I
won't ask a rack rent, I promise you, and I suppose I could distrain on
these tea things and the kettle if it were not paid up. The latter
appears to be boiling over at this instant."

"So it is!" cried Isobel, lifting it o