snore and boom of caves
and cut outs in the rock. Gulls haunted the place. The black petrel,
the Western gull and the black-footed albatross all were to be found
here; long lines of white gulls marked the cliff edges, and far above,
in the dazzling azure of the sky, a Farallone cormorant circled like
the spirit of the place, challenging the newcomers with its cry.

Harman shifted his helm, and the _Heart of Ireland_ with main boom
swinging to port came gliding past the western rocks and opening the
sea to southward where, far on the horizon, lovely in the morning light
like vast ships under press of sail, the San Lucas Islands lay remote
in the morning splendour.

Away to port the line of the Californian coast showed beyond the heave
of the sea from Point Arguello to Point Conception, and to starboard
and west of the San Lucas's a dot in the sun-dazzle marked the peaks of
the island of San Nicolas.

Then, as the _Heart of Ireland_ came around and the full view of the
south of San Juan burst upon them, the wreck piled on the rocks came in
sight, and, anchored quarter of a mile off the shore--a Chinese junk!

"Well, I'm damned," said Harman.

Ginnell, seizing his glasses, rushed forward and looked through them at
the wreck.

"It's swarmin' with chows," cried he, coming aft. "They seem to have
only just landed, be the look of them. Keep her as she goes and be
ready with the anchor there forrard; we'll scupper them yet. Mr.
Harman, be plazed to fetch up that linth of lead pipe you'll find on
the cabin flure be the door. Capt'in, will you see with Charlie here
to the boat while I get the anchor ready for droppin'; them coolies is
all thumbs."

He went forward, and the _Heart of Ireland_, with the wind spilling out
of her mainsail, came along over the heaving blue swell, satin-smooth
here in the shelter of the island.

Truly the _Yan-Shan_, late _Robert Bullmer_, had made a masterpiece of
her last business; she had come stem on, lifted by the piling sea, and
had hit the rocks, smashing every bow-plate from the keel to within a
yard or two of the gunnel, then a wave had taken her under the stern
and lifted her and flung her broadside on just as she now lay, pinned
to her position by the rock horns that had gored her side, and showing
a space of her rust-red bottom to the sun.

The water was squattering among the rocks right up to her, the
phosphor-bronze propeller showed a single blade cocked crookedly at the