no one saw
him do it.

It was daybreak or thereabouts on the morning of November 5--and a
faint light coming through the decklight over the fo'c's'le--when I,
that had kept the middle watch and was now snoring in my bunk, sat up
at a touch on my shoulder, and stared, rubbing my eyes, into the dim
face of Mr. Goodfellow.

"Skipper wants you on deck," he announced. "We've lifted something
on the starboard bow, and he swears 'tis the Island."

CHAPTER XXIV.

WE ANCHOR OFF THE ISLAND.

The word fetched me out of my bunk like a shot from a gun. I ran
past him, scrambled up the fo'c's'le ladder, and gained the deck in
time to see Miss Belcher emerge from the after-companion upon the
dawn, her hair in a "bun," her bare feet thrust into loose felt
slippers, her form wrapped in a Newmarket overcoat closely buttoned
over her _robe de nuit_.

"The Island, ma'am!" announced Captain Branscome from the helm; and,
turning there by the fo'c's'le hatch and following the gesture of his
hand, I descried a purplish smear on the southern horizon. To me it
looked but a low-lying cloud or a fogbank.

"I'll take your word for it," answered Miss Belcher, calmly.
"You have timed it well, Captain Branscome."

"Under Providence, ma'am," the Captain corrected her, and called to
me to take the wheel while he fetched out his chart and unrolled it
for her inspection. "We are running straight down upon the northern
end of it, and our best anchorage (if I may suggest) lies to the
south'ard--in Gow's Creek, as they call it."

He laid a finger on the chart.

"We rely upon you, sir, to choose."

"I thank you, ma'am. If (as I doubt not) we find plenty of water
there, it will be the best anchorage in this breeze; not to mention
that this Gow's Creek runs up, as we are directed, to within a mile
and a half of the No. 3 _cache_. If you agree, ma'am, I have only to
ask your instructions whether to coast down the east or the west side
of the Island. The wind, you perceive, serves equally well for
both."

Miss Belcher considered for a moment.

"The Keys lie to the west of Gable Point, here. By taking that side
we can have a look at them on our way."

"Right, ma'am. Harry!"--he turned to me--"bring her nose round to
sou'-west and by south, and stand by for the gybe." He hauled in the
main-sheet and eased it over. "Now, see here, lad," he called to me
sharply as the little vessel yawed: "where were your eyes just then?"

"I wa