in a bad way, I fear. He kept up his
spirits until yesterday, when we saw two English vessels run past us to
the southward. Then it seemed to him, and to me too, for that matter,
that all hope was gone, and that we might have to remain here for years
more for what we could tell, since all the time we have been here we
have never seen a vessel."

At that moment Blyth came up, and in a voice choking with agitation I
told him what I had heard.

"Lead us at once to your captain," he said, turning to the seaman; "we
came here expressly to look for him, and are expecting the vessels back
as soon as the weather will allow them to return to the coast. If your
father is ill, Harry, there will be a risk in agitating him by
presenting yourself suddenly to him. Let our friend here first tell him
that he has found some Englishmen on the island, and then I will go in
and tell him that his son and brother-in-law have come to look for him.
Where is he living?" he asked of the sailor.

"In a poor enough place, sir, close on the sea shore. It is a cave,
inside a rock. We thought it safer than a hut, where the natives, if
they had come to the island, would be more likely to find us."

I begged the seaman to hurry on. "What! Are you the captain's son?" he
asked, as I ran by his side. "Often and often he has talked about you.
If anything will set him on his legs the sight of you will."

We soon reached the beach, when scrambling for some distance among the
rocks the seaman pointed to the entrance of a cave at the side of a hill
which sloped up from the water.

As agreed on the seaman went first, followed by Blyth. I stood outside
eagerly waiting to be summoned. It seemed so long that I was afraid my
father had been overcome with the news.

At length Blyth appeared, and beckoned me in, and the next instant I was
kneeling by my father's side, as he lay stretched on a bed of leaves and
matting, which Dick Meade, his faithful follower, had arranged for him.

"What! Are you Harry, really my son Harry?" he exclaimed, throwing his
arms around my neck; "I was sure that you and my good brother Jack
Radburn would come to look for me if you thought I was alive, and not
until yesterday, when God in his mercy had sent you to this island, did
I lose hope. Ungrateful I was, after having been preserved from so many
dangers; but your appearance has brought me back to life."

"What the captain wants is some good food," I heard Dick obse