A Silver Brand — page 191: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

) A SILVER BRAND, 183 Lina laughed merrily and defiantly. ‘‘T am not quite so silly as you think me. I have had ane one wee secret that I have locked closely from every- ody.’ _ “Excellent! When you are ready to confide it to my faithful keeping I will listen with the most intense inter- est. How splendidly this breeze takes us along. I must not be tempted too far, for it will be another thing rowing against the wind.” , ‘‘And I look far out and see what a broad stream of silver seems flowing out to the far-off lands beyond. Oh, Serena, if you and I in this little boat might sail out into it and follow, follow, how glorious’it would be.” | “Ah, my pet, you forget that the ingulfing waves, and > the stormy winds, and. the pathless wastes lie there also, and that moonlight’and ‘gentle breezes do not remain — always.” tgs - But I should lke totry it, even though I knew the storms waited,” persisted Lina. ‘IT think you will go some time; let that content you, dear Lina. And tell me now what your aunt says, and why she is angry at our intimacy ?” R ‘She is going to talk’with you herself when we return. Perhaps that is what she is saying to Nat. Oh, don’t . take down the sail yet. Let us go a little farther, dear _ Serene.” BS erat , ! “But we are some distance off now from shore,” an- swered the more prudent Serena. “ Just a little farther. I want to see the other side of the point, and watch the surf boiling up in the moonlight like fountains of pearl. See, there is a boat coming from shore. Some of the fishermen I suppose. So you need not be afraid, for we can call to them, and they will row us ashore.” - | And, as usual, Lina’s coaxing voice gained her wishes. Meanwhile Stephano, from his hiding-place, had watched with wistful eyes as the boat floated out into the dimpling diamond sparkle, and disappeared. A daring thought came to him. Why not take Nat’s boat and row out, hap- pily to meet them, possibly to speak with them? He disengaged himself from the brambly bushes, and wet quietly along the beach toward Nat’s boat. But hear- ing voices in that half-whispered, suppressed tone that suggests an evil secret, he instinctively retreated into the shadows and stopped. _ _ “Go along, Mike, the devil has certain sent us here in the GO m Eomicbooks