y the mere advent of De Sylva. It need
hardly be said that, under these circumstances, Hozier was the one man
in whose company she would feel reasonably safe. But she could not see
him anywhere. Coke and Watts, with the Brazilians and a couple of
Germans, were on the bridge, but Hozier was not to be found.

At last she hailed one of the _Andromeda's_ men whom she met in a
gangway.

"Mr. Hozier, miss?" said he. "Oh, he's forrard, right up in the bows,
keepin' a lookout. This is a ticklish place to enter without a pilot,
an' we've passed two already."

This information added to her distress. She ought not to go to him.
Full well she knew that her presence might distract him from an
all-important task. So she sat forlornly on the fore-hatch, waiting
there until he might leave his post, reviewing all the bizarre
procession of events since she climbed an elm-tree in the garden of
Linden House on a Sunday afternoon now so remote that it seemed to be
the very beginning of life. The adventures to which that elm-tree
conducted her were oddly reminiscent of the story of Jack and the
Beanstalk. For once, the true had outrivaled the fabulous.

The steamer crept on lazily, and Iris fancied the hour must be nearer
five o'clock than two when she heard Hozier's voice ring out clearly:

"Buoy on the port bow!"

There was a movement among the dim figures on the bridge. A minute
later Hozier cried again:

"Buoy on the starboard bow!"

She understood then that they were in a marked channel. Already the
road was narrowing. Soon they would be ashore. At last Hozier came.
He saw her as he jumped down from the forecastle deck.

"Why are you here, Iris?" was all he said. She looked so bowed, so
humbled, that he could not find it in his heart to reproach her for
having avoided him earlier.

"I wanted to be near you," she whispered. "I--I am frightened, Philip.
I am terrified by the unknown. Somehow, on the rock our dangers were
measurable. Here, we shall soon be swallowed up among a whole lot of
people."

They heard Coke's gruff order to the watch to clear the falls of the
jolly-boat. The _Unser Fritz_ was going dead slow. On the starboard
side were the lights of a large town, but the opposite shore was somber
and vague.

"Are we going to land at once, in a small boat?" said Iris timidly.

"I fancy there is a new move on foot. A gunboat is moored half a mile
down stream. You missed her because your back was