Then came the rain, beating the sea flat and drenching them to the skin. Through the smother of it the proa drove on steadily, laying her course for Aru as close as possible on the starboard tack. Later fell a flat calm and the stars came out. She rolled incredibly in the smooth, welling billows, but gradually these went down, until by midnight all was quiet and they lay drifting idly on the black bosom of the Banda Sea. Now and then the phosphorescent wake of a large shark would pass them, but finally this interest, too, waned, and everyone fell asleep except the curator, who had volunteered to take the watch. He sat dreaming under the stars, the sail hanging out idly and scarcely straightening the sheet. A gentle gurgle of phosphorescent fire eddied from the captured Papuan paddle that they had used for a rudder. The dim forms of his companions lay huddled in the dark, lying on the bamboo framework over the outrigger poles. The curator regarded them with feelings of quiet satisfaction. Their dash into Dutch New Guinea had been a success. They had brought back an immensely valuable natural-history collection, and mineral information to the world that would soon add a vigorous trade settlement to those two forlorn Dutch military posts, six hundred miles apart, on a wild and savage coast. But above all he rejoiced in the spiritual results of the expedition with deepest pride. Those two boys had shown courage and resourcefulness far beyond their years; they had faced privation, danger, and battle with a grit and determination, a cheerfulness and lack of grouch, that had proved them men after his own heart. And to serve the cause of science they had refused the opportunity for fabulous wealth and all the ease and comfort that money can give. With them and his two devoted natives the curator felt that he had a scientific organization that would do. Yes, it would do mighty well! He smoked on, thinking silently as the hours slipped by. Finally a light breeze, the precursor of dawn, sprang up, and the proa slipped quietly along, little rills of water trickling against her planks. It grew light in the east, and after a time out of the mists in the west developed the solid cloud banks, pierced with pale outlines of islets, hill, and jungle, of the shore line of Aru. “Land ho!” yelled the curator, waking them all up. “Here’s Aru, boys, dead ahead, and we’ve beaten our proa that was to have come for us by two days!” THE END HARPER’S “TELL-ME-HOW” SERIES _HARPER’S EVERY-DAY ELECTRICITY_ By DON CAMERON SHAFER _Describes all electrical apparatus in common use. Each chapter contains various examples and experiments, amply illustrated with line-drawings._ _HARPER’S WIRELESS BOOK_ By ALPHEUS HYATT VERRILL _Part I deals with Principles and Mechanism of Wireless; Part II, Operation and Use of Wireless; Part III, Wireless Telephone; Part IV, Wireless Power Transmission._ _HARPER’S BEGINNING ELECTRICITY_ By DON CAMERON SHAFER