A Hero for Leanda

unscrewed the cap and looked in. It was about three-quarters full.
    “Good,” he said, and replaced the cap. “Wait, now—two minutes.” He climbed back aboard Thalia. Kastella, who had been watching and listening from Tlmlias cockpit, said, “Well?” Leanda was just finishing bandaging the little boy’s head. Conway held the end while she fixed it with a safety pin. “Is it a bad cut?” he asked.
    “It’s quite nasty, poor little kid, but it should be all right if they look after him.... I think something must have fallen on him.”
    Kastella said impatiently, “What’s the position, Conway ?”
    Conway sat down. “Well, it’s a bit difficult.”
    “What about the water?”
    “Oh, they’ve plenty of water—thirty or forty gallons,
    I should think.... The thing is , we’ll have to give them a tow.”
    “A tow! Where to?”
    “To within sight of land, anyway. They’re helpless .“
    “That’s not our business,” Kastella said sharply. “We’ve got our own troubles to worry about. Someone else will have to look after them.”
    “There isn’t anybody else,” Conway said. “There probably won’t be. No one fishes out here. They’ve no sails and no engine. If a storm got up from the west they wouldn’t have a chance. They’d blow ashore and pile up on the coral. We can’t leave them.”
    “If we tow them in, we shan’t have a chance, either,” Kastella said. “Don’t worry about them, Conway—they’ll get home somehow.”
    Conway said, slowly and contemptuously, “You bloody landlubber!” He got up, and went back aboard the ketch.
    Kastella looked at Leanda. “It’s madness.... We just can’t afford to take the risk.”
    “Oh, Alex,” she said, “how can we leave them! Mike’s absolutely right.” She went into the saloon and rummaged among the stores and came up after a moment or two with chocolate and sweets for the children. By now there was considerable activity aboard the ketch. The young Negro was filling a small can with water from the tank. Conway was talking to the old man, gesticulating a lot and drawing painfully on his schoolboy French. The Negress was smiling happily, hugging the bandaged boy, while the little girl peeped shyly from behind her mother’s skirt. Presently the two men helped Conway to lift out their water tank and lower it into Thalia’s cockpit. Then Conway fetched one of his strong warps and made one end fast to Thalia s stern and threw the other end to the young Negro to make fast at the ketch’s bows. Kastella looked on, scowling.
    Leanda said, “What’s the plan, Mike?”
    “I’m going to tow them to Victoria ,” Conway said. “I’ve fixed everything with them, and they understand. We shall do the last bit in the dark and take them as close in as we dare—close enough for them to be safe, anyway. When I give the word they’ll cast us off and we’ll motor straight out to sea again without stopping. If the weather stays calm, everything should go smoothly. We’ve got all their water, apart from the gallon or two they’ll need on the way, so we won’t have any more worries on that score. It strikes me as a very satisfactory arrangement.”
    Kastella said, “You’re a fool, Conway—a sentimental fool. Somebody’s sure to see us... You’re throwing away twenty thousand pounds.”
    “I don’t think so,” Conway said, and started the engine. As Thalia gathered way, the ketch swung in astern of her. Conway hauled the tow line short, so there’d be no danger of it catching in the propeller, and made it fast again. Then he took his seat at the tiller. Leanda went and sat beside him. Conway looked up at the young Negro, who was squatting in the bows of the ketch, and gave the thumbs-up sign. The Negro grinned happily. Back in the ketch’s cockpit, someone was singing. Kastella gave Conway an ugly look and went below.
    As soon as Thalia was on her course, Conway started to make some calculations. It was a hundred and fifty miles to Victoria . The ketch was towing well—they should average, he reckoned, about five knots. A hundred and twenty miles in the next twenty-four hours if the flat calm held. Then a final dash in the dark...
    Leanda suddenly cried, “Alex, what are you doing?
    Conway looked up sharply. Kastella was standing by the saloon door. He had the shotgun in his hand, and he was pointing it at them.
    “All right,” he said, “don’t move, either of you.” He advanced slowly. “This is where you start