The breeze holds from the southwest at
about three knots, but the bank is moving with the wind. It is so
thick we can not see a ship's length in any direction. The current is
strong and westerly.

I know the Old Man is worried, because the Kamchatka coast is close
a-lee. Garboy says he was in a bank in these seas one time for ten
weeks. I think he is a liar. I am thinking a lot about Alice.

"Next entry two days later, August 17th," said the hunchback.

Still fogbound. Heavy groundswell from sou'east. Garboy says it means
a sou'east blow, and I think he is right. Well, anything to blow away
this cursed fog! The Old Man is drunk today. The old skinflint never
hands out a swig to any of us, though. We must be near land, for we
hear birds flying above the fog. All hands standing by, and we are
keeping the best lookout possible. The Old Man should sober up, and
attend to business.

"There, that is the last regular entry, the last one he wrote upon the
ship. Here is the next one--observe the different ink! This is
written in red, the same color as those figures upon the skin. I think
Winters wrote with one of those red writing-sticks you buy on the China
coast; he probably had one in his pocket. This entry tells of
tragedy--mark how it begins:

May God have mercy! I will write down our plight, though I know there
is small chance of these words reaching civilization. I sit in the
window of the dry cave, on the Fire Mountain, and write by the light of
the midnight sun!

Manuel Silva and I are the sole survivors of the wreck of the _Good
Luck_. Thirty-five were lost. We are cast away on a barren island.
It is a volcanic mountain, filled with black caves. There is a
bottomless hole that belches steam, and the earth shakes. We do not
know our latitude or longitude. God help us, we only know we are cast
away in the empty Bering sea, near the Asia coast!

It happened a week ago. I had the deck. We were running before a hard
gale from the sou'east, and the Old Man was drunk. It was very thick,
and impossible to keep a good lookout. Then, just after two bells in
the middle watch, I heard breakers. I had only time to order the wheel
up, when we struck. We jammed between two monster rocks, and the masts
went by the board, and the ship broke in two. The fore part went to
pieces, and all the hands forward, except Silva, who was at the wheel,
went to.

The stern was wedged fast. Garboy and