pretty badly."

Kitty Blake made her appearance in the cabin entrance, and Vane
smiled at her.

"We're going to give you a rest," he announced. "There's an inlet close
ahead where we should find smooth water, and we'll put you all ashore for
a few hours until the wind drops."

There was no suspicion in the girl's face now. She gave him a grateful
glance before she disappeared below with the consoling news.

A quarter of an hour later Vane closed with the beach, and a break in the
hillside, which was dotted with wind-stunted pines, opened up. While the
two men struggled with the mainsheet, the big boom and the sail above it
lurched madly over. The sloop rolled down until half her deck on one side
was in the sea, but she hove herself up again and shot forward, wet and
gleaming, into a space of smooth green water behind a head. Soon
afterward, Vane luffed into a tiny bay, where she rode upright in the
sunshine, with loose canvas flapping softly in a faint breeze while the
cable rattled down. They got the canoe over, and when they had helped
Mrs. Marvin and her little girl, both of whom looked very wobegone and
the worse for the voyage, into her, Vane glanced around.

"Isn't Miss Blake coming?" he asked.

"She's changing her dress," explained Mrs. Marvin, with a smile. She
glanced at her own crumpled attire as she added: "I'm past thinking of
such things as that!"