CHAPTER V.
THE ISLANDS AND WHAT WE FOUND THERE.
To those who have had no experience of the South Pacific the constantly recurring beauties of our voyage would have seemed like a foretaste of Heaven itself. From Sydney, until the Loyalty Group lay behind us, we had one long spell of exquisite weather. By night, under the winking stars, and by day, in the sweet sun light, our smart little craft ploughed her way across smooth seas, and our only occupation was to promenade or loaf about the decks and to speculate as to the result of the expedition upon which we had embarked.
Having sighted the Isle of Pines, we turned our bows almost due north, and headed for the New Hebrides. Every hour now our impatience was growing greater. In less than two days we ought to be at our destination, and twenty-four hours later to have Phyllis in our possession again. And what happiness this would mean to me I can only leave you to guess.
One morning, just as the faint outline of the coast of Aneityum was peering up over the horizon ahead, Wetherell and I chanced to be sitting in the bows. The sea was as smooth as glass, and the tinkling of the water round the little vessel's nose, as she turned it off in snowy lines, was the only sound to be heard. As usual, the conversation, after wandering off into other topics,
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