, the strong wind toyed
with its outer parts as with muslin, but it could not lift the
closely-tied folds that surrounded her face and heavily draped her
figure. Caius stood with her on the frozen slope. Beneath them they
could see the whole stretch of the shining sand-dune that led to the
next island, the calm lagoon and the rough water in the bay beyond. It
did not seem a likely place for outlaws to hide in; the sun poured down
on every hill and hollow of the sand.

Caius explained then that his portmanteaus, with the stores, had arrived
safely; but that he had reason to think that the man O'Shea was not
trusty, that, either out of malice or fear of the companions among whom
he found himself, he had threatened his, Dr. Simpson's, life in the most
unwarrantable manner. He then presented the statement which he had drawn
up, and commended it to her attention.

Madame Le Maitre had listened to his words without obvious interest; in
fact, he doubted if she had got her mind off the sick children before
she opened the paper. He would have liked to go away now, leaving the
paper with her, but she did not give him that opportunity.

"Ah! this is----" Then, more understandingly, "This is an account you
have written of your journey hither?"

Caius intimated that it was merely a complaint against O'Shea. Yet he
felt sure, while she was reading it, that, if she had any liveliness of
fancy, she must be interested in its contents, and if she had proper
appreciation, she must know that he had expressed himself well. When she
had finished, however, instead of coveting the possession of the
document, she gently gave it back to him.

"I am sorry," she said sincerely, "that you were put to inconvenience.
It was so kind of you to come, that I had hoped to make your journey as
comfortable as possible; but the sands are very treacherous, not because
the quicksands are large or deep, but because they shift in stormy
weather, sometimes appearing in one place, and sometimes in another. It
has been explained"--she was looking at him now, quite interested in
what she was saying--"by men who have visited these islands, that this
is to be accounted for by the beds of gypsum that lie under the sand,
for under some conditions the gypsum will dissolve."

The explanation concerning the gypsum was certainly interesting, but the
nature of the quicksand was not the point which Caius had brought
forward.

"It is this fact, that one cannot tell whe