led homeward over the
green and blue water, while the white sand-hills shone silvery before
them, and then turned red in the sunset. That night the moon was at its
full. Keith went out and strolled up and down on the beach. Carrington
was playing fox-and-goose with Mme. Gonsalvez on a board he had
good-naturedly constructed for her entertainment when she confessed one
day to a youthful fondness for that exciting game. Up stairs gleamed the
little Sister's light. "Saying her prayers with her lips, but thinking
all the time of that old convent," said the stroller to himself, half
scornfully. And he said the truth.

The sea was still and radiant; hardly more than a ripple broke at his
feet; the tide was out, and the broad beach silvery and fresh. "At home
they are buried in snow," he thought, "and the wind is whistling around
their double windows." And then he stretched himself on the sand, and
lay looking upward into the deep blue of the night, bathed in the
moonlight, and listening dreamily to the soft sound of the water as it
returned slowly, slowly back from the African coast. He thought many
thoughts, and deep ones too, and at last he was so far away on ideal
heights, that, coming home after midnight, it was no wonder if, half
unconsciously, he felt himself above the others; especially when he
passed the little Sister's closed door, and thought, smiling not
unkindly, how simple she was.

The next morning the two men went off in their boat again for the day,
this time alone. There were still a few more questions to settle about
that shark, and, to tell the truth, they both liked a good day of
unencumbered sailing better than anything else.

About four o'clock in the afternoon Melvyna, happening to look out of
the door, saw a cloud no bigger than a man's hand low down on the
horizon line of the sea. Something made her stand and watch it for a few
moments. Then, "Miss Luke! Miss Luke! Miss Luke! Miss Luke!" she called
quickly. Down came the little Sister, startled at the cry, her lace-work
still in her hand.

"Look!" said Melvyna.

The Sister looked, and this is what she saw: a line white as milk coming
toward them on the water, and behind it a blackness.

"What is it?" she asked.

"A tornader," said Melvyna with white lips. "I've only seen one, and
then I was over in the town; but it's awful! We must run back to the
thicket." Seizing her companion's arm, the strong Northern woman hurried
her across the sand, th