at, which now was scarcely half a mile ahead of them.

"She's empty!--there's no one in her!" said Peter, mournfully, as,
steadying himself by the mast, he cast a look seaward.

"Row on,--let us get beside her," said Harcourt.

"She's the yawl!--I know her now," cried the man.

"And empty?"

"Washed out of her with a say, belike," said Peter, resuming his oar,
and tugging with all his strength.

A quarter of an hour's hard rowing brought them close to the dismasted
boat, which, drifting broadside on the sea, seemed at every instant
ready to capsize.

"There's something in the bottom,--in the stern-sheets!" screamed Peter.
"It's himself! O blessed Virgin, it's himself!" And, with a bound, he
sprang from his own boat into the other.

[Illustration: 126]

The next instant he had lifted the helpless body of the boy from the
bottom of the boat, and, with a shout of joy, screamed out,--

"He's alive!--he's well!--it's only fatigue!"

Harcourt pressed his hands to his face, and sank upon his knees in
prayer.

CHAPTER XIII. A "VOW" ACCOMPLISHED

Just as Upton had seated himself at that fragal meal of weak tea and
dry toast he called his breakfast, Harcourt suddenly entered the room,
splashed and road-stained from head to foot, and in his whole demeanor
indicating the work of a fatiguing journey.

"Why, I thought to have had my breakfast with you," cried he,
impatiently, "and this is like the diet of a convalescent from fever.
Where is the salmon--where the grouse pie--where are the cutlets--and
the chocolate--and the poached eggs--and the hot rolls, and the cherry
bounce?"

"Say, rather, where are the disordered livers, worn-out stomachs,
fevered brains, and impatient tempers, my worthy Colonel?" said Upton,
blandly. "Talleyrand himself once told me that he always treated great
questions starving."

"And he made a nice mess of the world in consequence," blustered out
Harcourt. "A fellow with an honest appetite and a sound digestion would
never have played false to so many masters."

"It is quite right that men like you should read history in this wise,"
said Upton, smiling, as he dipped a crust in his tea and ate it.

"Men like me are very inferior creatures, no doubt," broke in Harcourt,
angrily; "but I very much doubt if men like you had come eighteen miles
on foot over a mountain this morning, after a night passed in an open
boat at sea,--ay, in a gale, by Jove, such as I sha' n't forget in a
hurr