The Secret of the Reef

The big liner's smoke streamed straight astern, staining the soft blue of the sky, as, throbbing gently to her engines' stroke, she clove her way through the smooth heave of the...

The sun had dipped behind a high black ridge crested with ragged pines, when Jimmy, dressed in brown overalls and a seaman's jersey, sat cooking supper on a stony beach of Vanco...

In the evening of the day on which they saw the last of Vancouver Island, Jimmy sat in the _Cetacea's_ cockpit with a chart of the North Pacific spread out before him on the cab...

On a gray afternoon, with a fog hovering over the leaden water, they sighted the island where the wreck lay. What wind there was blew astern, but it had scarcely strength enough...

For three days a bitter gale raged about the island, blowing clouds of sand and fine shingle along the beach and piling the big Pacific combers upon the shoals. The air was fill...

Though it was nearly eleven o'clock at night, the light had not quite gone and the sea glimmered about the sloop as she rose and fell at her moorings by the wreck. To the north...

A light wind faintly ruffled the landlocked water when the _Cetacea_ crept up to her anchorage off a small lumber port on the eastern coast of Vancouver Island. A great boom of...

Hot sunshine poured into the clearing on the shore of Puget Sound where Henry Osborne had his dwelling. The pretty, wooden house, with its wide veranda and scrollwork decoration...

Osborne was sitting on his veranda one hot evening while Ruth reclined in a basket-chair, glancing at him thoughtfully. Of late she had felt that she did not know her father as...

Ruth had time to ponder her father's unfinished story, for a week elapsed before she could persuade him to continue it. Osborne was away for a few days, and when he came home hi...

Osborne did not go to town on Saturdays, and he and Ruth were sitting in a shady corner of the lawn during the hot afternoon when a cloud of dust whirled up among the firs. The...

The train was held up on its way to the Canadian frontier by a wash-out farther along the track. Devereux Clay stood in the noon sunshine talking to Osborne at a small wayside s...

The night was dark and the road bad, and Clay leaned forward in the lurching car, looking fixedly ahead. The glare of the headlamp flickered across wagon ruts and banks of tall...

broke into a run. It was long since he had indulged in much physical exercise, and he was still shaky from his fall, but he toiled on with labored breath. The lights got brighte...

Aynsley lay in danger for a long time; and Clay never left the mill. At last, however, the boy began to recover slowly, but when he grew well enough to notice things the scream...

The scent of the pines was heavy in the languid air. Bright sunshine fell upon the grass, and the drowsy stillness was scarcely broken by the splash of ripples on the beach. Ayn...

It was the evening before Aynsley's departure, and he and Clay and the Osbornes were sitting on the veranda. Not a breath of wind was stirring, and the inlet stretched back, smo...

When Jimmy went on deck the next morning, fog hung heavily about the land and the slate-green sea ran with a sluggish heave out of belts of vapor. The air felt unusually sharp a...

Cold as it was, Jimmy lay for a long time on the sloop's deck when he had been stripped of the diving gear. How he had crawled out of the hole and climbed the ladder was not cle...

A cold snap had suddenly fallen over the northern half of Vancouver Island, and tall pines and unpaved streets were white with frozen snow. A chilling wind swept round Jaques' s...

Clammy mist hung about the edge of the clearing, veiling the somber spires of the pines, but leaving the rows of straight trunks uncovered below a straight-drawn line. It was a...

Jimmy's courage had fallen very low, dragging with it the last remnants of hope and ambition. Every loophole of escape from poverty seemed closed against him. For days he had tr...

"I don't know that I am much interested," Osborne replied. "He was of some service to us during our voyage from Japan, and seemed a smart young fellow. It merely struck me that...

Clay made no marked change in his mode of living, and shortly after his visit to the doctor he engaged in a struggle with a group of speculators who opposed one of his business...

Trade was slack in the Pacific province, and men from the interior flocked down to the coast and overflowed the employment bureaus. This made it unusually hard for Jimmy and his...

Aynsley, sitting near an open window in his office, laid down his pen and looked out with a sense of satisfaction. A great raft of lumber was ready to start down the river, and...

As soon as Aynsley joined her at Victoria, the handsome schooner-yacht, with its auxiliary engines, got under way. For the first day or two the wind was fair, but although she s...

Late on a gloomy evening Jimmy and his friends sat down for a few minutes' rest on the beach of a lonely island on the northern coast. With the help of Jaques they had fitted ou...

When Jimmy sighted the island where the wreck lay, there was a ghostly white glimmer among the mist that hung heavily along the shore. Most of the land was hidden, but the bank...

The breeze was light at daybreak, and while the island still loomed shapeless and shadowy across the leaden water the yacht's gig brought Clay's diver and an excellent set of pu...

"Sure!" smiled Bethune. "It's safe under the floorings and heavy enough to make the salvage worth having. But I came down to bring you this note from Aynsley. One of his men bro...

Jimmy and his companions sat on the balcony formed by the flat roof of the veranda in front of Jaques' store. It was a fine evening and a light breeze stirred the dust in the st...

When Jimmy was shown into the large, cool drawing-room, he stood awkwardly still, with a thrill of keen satisfaction and an effort for self-control. He had so far seen little of...