waters, they saw a
schooner sinking and rising upon the long swells, and certain to be
caught, in the very vortex, as may be said, of the hurricane, or
tornado, or typhoon, or whatever it should be termed. The craft was
not an unfamiliar one--both knew it well--for it was the _Coral_, with
the mutineers on board.

Unarmed as they were, they would not dare place themselves in the
power of those toward whom they had shown such enmity, but that they
were literally forced to do so to escape almost certain destruction
from the impending tempest.

If they should run into the lagoon to wait until the storm should
subside, neither the captain nor mate would disturb them--provided
they took their departure as soon as it became safe. Still, knowing
their treacherous character so well, Bergen and Storms did not mean to
trust them at all. Inez was therefore placed within the cabin, while
her protectors made certain they were armed and ready for any
contingency.

Now that the sun was shut out from sight, a darkness like that of
night overspread land and water, while the strong gale howled among
the palms, which swayed and bent as if they would soon be uprooted and
flung out into the boiling sea. The swells were topped with foam, and
large drops of rain, sweeping almost horizontally across the island,
struck against the face like pebbles.

The mutineers were heading, so far as was possible, towards the
opening in the atoll, but they were not in position to strike it, and,
with the deepening darkness and increasing tempest, the task was
becoming more difficult every minute. Suddenly a vivid flash of
lightning illumined the gloom, and the schooner _Coral_ was observed
on the crest of a high wave, heading toward the island; but the two
men who saw her, saw also, that she missed the opening and was too
close in to make it.

The rumble of thunder continued for some minutes, when once more a
blinding flash swept across the murky sky, lighting up sea and island
for the instant, as if with the glare of the noonday sun. Captain
Bergen and Mate Storms were straining their eyes to catch sight of the
little schooner and its crew, but it was invisible. In that single
searching glance, they could not have failed to see her had she been
afloat. The conclusion, therefore, was inevitable. She and her crew
had gone to the bottom of the sea.

Such was the fact. The mutineers had met a frightful though merited
fate, and could trouble our frien