and's a death-trap, and the sooner we're off it the
better for our healths. What's happened to the ship, the Lord only
knows! At a guess I would say that an accident's overtook her. Why
should a man leave his shipmates if it isn't by an accident? Mister
Jacob is not the one to go psalm-singing when he knows we're short of
victuals and cooped up here like rats in a trap! Not he, as I'm a
living man! Then an accident's overtook him; he doesn't come, because
he can't come, which, as my old father used to say, was the best of
reasons. Putting two and two together, I should speak for sailing away
without him, which is plain reason anyway."

"We walking on the sea, the likes of which the parson talks about?"
chimed in Seth Barker.

"If you haven't got a boat," says Dolly Venn, "I don't see how you are
to make one out of seaweed! Perhaps Mister Jacob will come back
tomorrow."

"And perhaps we sha'n't be hungry before that same time!" added Peter
Bligh; "aye, that's it, captain, where's the dinner to come from?"

I thought upon it a minute, and then I said to them:

"If Dolly Venn heard a bell ringing last night that's the danger-bell
of which Miss Ruth speaks. We cannot go down to the island, for doesn't
she say it's death to be caught there? We cannot stop up here or we
shall die of hunger. If there's a man among you that can point to a
middle course, I shall be glad to hear him. We have got to do
something, lads, that's sure!"

They stared at me wonderingly; none of them could answer it. We were
between the devil and the deep sea, and in our hearts I think we began
to say that if the ship did not come before many hours had passed, four
of her crew, at least, would cease to care whether she came or stopped.

CHAPTER XI

LIGHTS UNDER THE SEA

The day fell powerfully hot, with scarce a breath of wind and a Pacific
sun beating fiercely on the barren rocks. What shelter was to be had we
got in the low cave behind the platform; but our eyes were rarely
turned away from the sea, and many a time we asked each other what kept
Clair-de-Lune or why the ship was missing. That the old man had some
good reason I made certain from the beginning; but the ship was a
greater matter. Either she was powerless to help us or Mister Jacob had
mistaken his orders. I knew not what to think. It was enough to be
trapped there on that bit of a rock and to tell each other that,
sleep-time or sun-time, we should be dead men if no help came t