d I made free with a very handsome swinging-cot which I found
in the captain's cabin, also for our passenger's use, together with a
good stock of bedding.

All these we collected together on the lee-side of the deck; and when
everything was ready, we got the cutter alongside, and, with
considerable difficulty, got them over the side and down on her deck.

Bob went on board the _Water Lily_ to receive them and stow them away as
I lowered them down, and at length all was ready, and it only remained
to get Ella herself on board and shove off.

We had less difficulty with her than I expected. She was rather
nervous; but, nevertheless, she seated herself courageously with her
beloved kitten in her lap, in the bo'sun's chair I had rigged for her
accommodation, and held on tight, shutting her eyes as she swung off the
ship's bulwarks, until she felt Bob's brawny arms receive her on the
deck of the cutter.

I then quickly followed; the fasts were cast off, and we wore round and
stood away once more upon our course, just as the sun dipped below the
horizon.

Our first task was to crowd all the canvas we could muster upon the
yacht, to make up for the day's delay; and when Ella came up from the
cabin, whither she had gone upon an exploring expedition, she expressed
the greatest surprise and a little alarm at the change we had wrought in
the _Water Lily's_ appearance.

She could not understand, she said, how so small a vessel could support
such a towering spread of canvas as she now saw courting the fresh
evening breeze.

The presence of our fair guest on board made certain alterations
necessary in the internal arrangements of the cutter, and I left Bob at
the helm in animated conversation with Ella, whilst I went below to
effect them. Our cooking-stove was shifted aft, and the whole of the
fore-compartment was thus left free for the accommodation of the young
lady; and I at once converted it into a sleeping apartment for her by
swinging her cot there.

I selected this part of the vessel for this purpose, as it was the only
one in which she would be entirely uninterrupted by our passage to and
fro; and it was a nice light and _roomy_ apartment, in proportion to the
size of the vessel, there being nothing in it, and having a large
circular plate of very thick roughened plate-glass let into the deck
above.

Having made the place as comfortable as our resources permitted, I
returned to the deck and relieved Bob at the t