guest at your home later. I'll admit that for a moment I doubted the
existence of your house, but I don't now. Are you willing to go on board
the _Hawk_ with us and meet Captain Whyte?"

"Gladly," replied Robert, who felt that his dramatic moment was being
prolonged. "The storm is dying now. Having done its worst against you,
and, having failed, it seems willing to pass away."

"But we don't forget that you saved us," said the officer. "My name is
Lanham, John Lanham, and I'm a lieutenant on the _Hawk_."

The storm was, in truth, whistling away to the westward and its rage, so
far as Robert's island was concerned, was fully spent. The waves were
sinking and the night was lightening fast. The sloop of war, heaving at
her anchorage, stood up sharp and clear, and it seemed to Robert that
there was something familiar in her lines. As he looked he was sure.
Coincidence now and then stretches forth her long arm, and she had
stretched it now.

The sailors, when the sea died yet more, relaunched the boat. Lanham and
Robert sprang in, and the men bent to the oars.




CHAPTER XI

BACK TO THE WORLD