and Williams began to grow impatient; so much so indeed
that he at length proposed landing the passengers on the next land seen,
let it be what it would. But to this the crew would not agree: they
were as yet young in crime, and were determined that, since the
passengers _must_ be got rid of, they should at least be given a fair
chance. A compromise was at length come to, by which it was agreed that
the search should be continued for three days longer, after which the
unlucky passengers were to be landed on the first land seen, there to
take their chance. This matter was decided at a council composed of the
entire crew, on the evening of a day whereon no less than three islands
had been fruitlessly visited; and at the close of the discussion Ned was
summoned and the chart consulted. At Williams' request the area already
examined was pointed out, and then, after much discussion, a course of
due east was decided upon, in order that a new tract of sea might be
explored. On this course the chart showed a clear sea for something
like three hundred miles ahead of them. Everybody was therefore much
astonished when at daybreak next morning land was descried right ahead
at a distance of only about ten miles.

The discovery was of course first reported to Williams, who seemed
greatly disconcerted by it.

"Call Ned," said he.

Ned was duly summoned, and soon made his appearance on the topgallant-
forecastle, upon which Williams had already established himself, and
from which advantageous stand-point he was watching the approach of the
ship to the land.

"What do you call that?" demanded Williams, pointing ahead, as soon as
he became conscious of Ned's presence beside him.

"Land--unmistakably land!" exclaimed Ned, shading his eyes with his hand
to get a clearer view.

"And do you know how far the ship has run during the night?" angrily
demanded the mutineer.

"Not far, I should think; perhaps fifty or sixty miles," replied Ned,
glancing aloft and away toward the horizon to note the appearance of sea
and sky.

"And did you not tell me only last night that we had a clear sea to the
eastward of us for something like three hundred miles? Yet there is the
land; and if it had happened to blow fresh during the night we should
perhaps have run upon it before making it out in the dark. How do you
account for your being so strangely out of your reckoning?" sternly
asked Williams.

"I am not out of my reckoning," hotly re