gantine at St. Jago. He set great store by these valuable implements,
for they had done him good service in time of need. Miguel came into
possession of them afterward, and sold them almost for their weight in
gold.

But, for the first time, Captain Brand forgot his personal friends and
bosom companions. It was a great oversight; and he was extremely sorry
when it was too late to go back for them. However, with the copper
oil-pot dangling from his little finger, where the sapphire once shone,
and the torch-stick in the other hand, he marched boldly over the sandy
ridges toward the crag.

But, Captain Brand, there had been three pairs of open eyes watching you
through every mouthful of snapper you snapped, and every drop of fiery
white rum you swallowed. Ay! and while you tossed about on the shelly
beach, with the red glow of the embers of the fire lighting up your
cold-blooded, wrinkled face--while, twisting your nose, you muttered ho!
ho's! of murderous satisfaction--there was not a bird that swooped over
you, or a lizard on the rocks with jet beads of eyes, that watched you
so sharply as did those attentive beholders from the crag.

And when you made your observations from the young cocoa-nut clump,
those watchers retired down the opposite side, and two of them clambered
through a hole in the roof of the decaying little chapel, while the
other moved to the little cemetery of coral gravestones, and there
scooped a place in the sand and cactus behind the one cut with the
letter L.

Captain Brand meanwhile came on, picking his way through the dense
cactus, which lacerated his legs, and sadly tore the remains of his
loose canvas. The rain came down in torrents, the thunder growled and
crashed as the tropical storm burst over the island; and just as a vivid
sheet of forked lightning seemed to stride the crag, and the awful peal
that followed shook it to its base, Captain Brand crept for shelter
within the cleft of the rock, and sat down to prepare for a more
extended research.

He may have been gone twenty minutes; but when he again emerged the rain
had ceased, the clouds were breaking away, and the gentle sea-breeze
blowing, while Captain Brand looked a thousand years older. He seemed to
have borrowed all the million of wrinkles from his compadre, in addition
to those he already possessed. The thin lids of his frozen green--now
quite solid--eyes had apparently exhaled by intense cold, and left
nothing but a stony lo