Page:Barbour--Joan of the ilsand.djvu/105

 HE little alarm clock, that did general duty as a time piece in the bungalow, pointed to ten o'clock that night when the querk querk of a horn came over the water.

"That's the Kestrel!" said Joan, jumping up. Keith had some misgivings on the subject of Chester Trent, but they were dispelled as soon as the planter leaped from the boat.

"Hope you weren't scared, sis," he said, with a brotherly peck on her cheek. "I had the deuce of a job getting back. The wind was dead wrong all the way, but I've brought three ripping divers with me. What's the news?"

"Moniz is calmly sitting on your reef," the girl announced.

"The devil he is!"

Keith explained briefly what had happened, and Chester nodded slowly.

"There'll be a shindy to-morrow," he said. "I haven't been all the way to Borenda for divers just for the pleasure of looking at 'em. And he had the infernal impudence to come to Tao Tao for a pow- 93