h of the same colour encircled
her waist. She had now also recovered her colour, which the shock of her
adventure had driven from her cheeks, and she looked the picture of health
and happiness.

"Oh, you dear boy!" she cried out, and to Will's astonishment and
consternation she threw her arms round his neck and kissed him. "Oh, how
much you have done for us! If it hadn't been for you father would have had
no one to pet him and scold him. It would have been dreadful, wouldn't it,
daddy?"

"It would indeed, my child," her father said gravely; "it would have taken
all the joy out of my life, and left me a lonely old man."

"I have told you before," she said, "that you are not to call yourself
old. I don't call you old at all; I consider that you are just in your
prime. Now come in, Mr. Gilmore, I have all sorts of iced drinks ready for
you."

Alice and Will soon became excellent friends. She took him over the
plantations and showed him the negro cabins, fed him with fruit until he
almost fell ill, and, as he said, treated him more like a baby than as an
officer in His Majesty's service.

"The stars don't look so bright to-night," Will said, as he stood on the
veranda with Mr. Palethorpe on the last evening of his visit.

"No, I have been noticing it myself, and I don't like the look of the
weather at all."

"No!" Will repeated in surprise; "it certainly looks as if there was a
slight mist."

"Yes, that is what it looks like, but at this time of year we don't often
have mists. I am afraid we are going to have a hurricane; it is overdue
now by nearly a month. October, November, and the first half of December
are the hurricane months, and I fear that, as it is late, we shall have a
heavy one."

"I have seen one since I came out, and then we were at sea and were nearly
wrecked. I saw its effects on land, however, for we spent some weeks
ashore in consequence of it. The forest was almost levelled. I certainly
should not care to see another one."

"No, it is not a thing that anyone would wish to see a second time. Words
cannot describe how terrible they are. I hope, however, if we have one,
that it will be a light one, but I am rather afraid of it."

Nothing more was said on the matter till they retired to bed, when Mr.
Palethorpe said, half in fun and half in earnest: "I should advise you to
have your clothes handy by your bedside, Mr. Gilmore, for you may want
them quickly and badly if a hurricane comes."

Will