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 rain. Had she done so she would have had more time to make her plans in case he refused to aid her. She must see him that day or at any rate that evening, at the latest!

“I don’t suppose you pay on much, do you?” Ashurst had asked her.

“Of course not!” she had replied. “The inspectors all know me and then—” with a laugh—“I never have anything to declare, you know!”

“Rather—not!” he had smirked. “By the way, I suppose Trevelyan will be climbing up the side before long.”

“I hope so!” she had retorted unsympathetically. “I would n’t mind seeing his face again. Perhaps you like these interminable trips—I don’t!”

The day wore on with the Pavonia sliding quietly through an oily sea only visible through the fog for the space of a few feet beyond the bowsprit. Just at dusk a shrill whistle from the obscurity announced the presence of a steam pilot boat; the engines ceased throbbing as a white dory came swiftly alongside and the pilot in tarpaulins and rubber boots appeared up the