"Another king is coming," Minos murmured low. "Hail to the king! But alas, his sire hath for him no kingdom to rule, unless indeed one may be won in the land whither we are journeying." "Mayhap not a king, but a princess," said Memene. Strong of the hope that was in him, Minos made answer. "Nay, he shall be a king." And after thoughtful pause he added, "We will call him Patrymion." Thus was another incentive added, bidding the wanderers bend every effort to reach with speed the friendly arms of civilization. * * * * * When they came again to the region of nights and days they were forced to do their traveling by sunlight mostly, and at night to drift. Twice the chill in the air warned them just in the nick of time of the proximity of icebergs, and they escaped them by recourse to the engine. Then a storm came up from the southwest and hurled them north under bare poles, with the prospect of utter destruction momentarily before them. "Let it blow," said Zenas Wright grimly. "If we can only keep afloat, it's helping us north fast enough, and, besides, it saves gas." North they went, and east, far out of the course they had laid for New Zealand. For two days and nights the gale held, dying away in the dawn of the third day. The first gray daylight found them tossing on a choppy sea. When the light came, and Zenas Wright was able to figure out their position, he announced that they were somewhere in the neighborhood of the Tubuai Islands, a French possession, and they decided to turn the prow of their boat in the direction of these islands. Taking the glasses, Polaris climbed a few feet up the mast and swept the sea. He was unable to raise land in any direction. What he did raise, however, sent him clattering back to the deck. "A ship!" he cried. "Straight ahead of us, a steamship! I can see her smoke!" "Look again, lad," said the practical Wright, "and tell us which way her smoke hangs, if you can." "To the north," Polaris shouted a moment later. "And she's headed this way, too!" With a splendid disregard for their remaining gasoline, the scientist forced his engine to its best efforts, and they soon were making eighteen knots on their way toward the stranger. Nearer and nearer came the two craft together, and finally those on the launch saw the steamship swing off her southerly course and point straight toward them. They had been sighted. Suddenly Polaris, who had been studying the approaching ship through the glasses, threw them down and sent up a great shout: "It's the _Minnetonka_!" It was. In another half hour they were alongside. A line was thrown them and made fast. Canny even in that moment of excitement, Zenas Wright opened a locker near the wheel and buckled fast to his leathern belt the traveling bag that held the rubies of Sardanes.