n their port bow in a cool gush, redolent of the exhilarating
smell of the open ocean, a very life-giving tonic; and the long, low
mounds of the Pacific swell, wrinkled with the sweep of the breeze, just
sufficed to give life in a long, easy plunging movement to the hull of
the _Flying Fish_, at one moment lifting her sharp-pointed nose and some
twenty feet of her fore-body clear out of the blue, sparkling brine, and
anon causing her to dive into the on-coming undulation until she was
buried nearly midway to her superstructure.

About mid-afternoon they passed a small island that lay some half a
dozen miles to the northward of their course, and about half an hour
before sunset another and still smaller one was sighted, almost directly
ahead.

As usual, every glass in the ship was at once brought to bear upon it;
for, despite the ever-fresh and ever-changing beauty of sea and sky, a
break in the monotony of it is always welcome, and even such an object
as a barren rock becomes interesting.

"Mildmay, do you notice anything peculiar about that island ahead?"
asked Sir Reginald, when he had been peering through his binocular for a
minute or so.

"Looks to me, very much like a wreck of some sort upon it," remarked
Lethbridge.

"It is a wreck," said Mildmay; "the wreck of a small craft--apparently a
schooner. I have just been looking at her."

"Uncommonly awkward spot to be cast away upon," said Sir Reginald.
"Why, it is a mere rock, by the look of it. And yet not quite a rock,
either, for there is grass on it, and a few stunted bushes. But the
whole place cannot be much more than ten acres in extent. And, as I
live, there are people upon it. I can see smoke, and the flicker of a
fire."

"You are right, Elphinstone. There is a fire there; I have just caught
sight of it," said Lethbridge.

"Well," said Sir Reginald, "we must stop and take them off, although I
don't much like the idea of admitting strangers to this ship, and so
`giving our show away' to a certain extent. But, of course, we can't
allow any considerations of that sort to weigh with us where the
question is one of saving life. And nobody could contrive to sustain
life for any length of time on that little patch of earth. Why, if
another gale should spring up, they would be washed off, for a dead
certainty."

"Ay, that is a fact that there is no disputing," agreed Mildmay. "And,
after all, you know, Elphinstone, there is no need for us to mak