mented in an injured tone. "It sho' will trick you if you stay here long enough. I'm gittin' kinder mollygrubby already. I ain't seen no ladies for a month and I jes' natchelly languishes for ladies' sassiety, and I'm goin' back to town befo' this summer's out, sho'."
With this introductory remark, the mulatto proceeded to enlighten the lads on his charms as a lady-killer, and, with this entertainment, they headed for the sand dunes that lay in a direction opposite to that of Cape Peril. The trampers had to keep their way high up on the beach, for the surf, riding before the heavy wind, broke tumultuously on the shore, and at times a mountainous breaker would collapse into a sweep of bubbling water that ranged afar and sent the three scampering to a higher place of refuge.
From time to time the lads would stop to examine some strange shells or stranded fish, and the imaginative Cat, especially, was on the alert for a mysterious box or bottle that might bring a message from the deep, as happens so often in the story books. Through the glasses, first one and then the other would gaze over the
