been in one for so many months.

The doctor suggested that his bed might have been damp. However, the
gale being over, the sun came out brightly, and he soon got rid of his
chill.

The captain took no more notice of me than he did before, and did not
even speak to Jack. His idea was to keep us at a proper distance, I
suppose. He had heard, I have no doubt, of our adventures from Dr
Cockle or the mate. It mattered very little to us, though I was afraid
that he might take it into his head to turn Jack out of the ship at some
place or other, on the plea that he did not belong to her.

I advised my brother, therefore, to keep out of his sight as much as
possible, especially when in harbour. Jim and I agreed that if he was
sent ashore we would go also, wherever it might be.

"So will I," said Miles Soper, who had heard us talking about the
matter.

"And I no stop eider, and den he lose four good hands. He no like dat,"
said Sam Coal.

Brown, hearing from Jim of my apprehensions, said he would go likewise
if the captain attempted to play any tricks of that sort.

Three days after the gale we hove-to off three small islands surrounded
by a reef. Brown, Miles Soper, two Africans and the New Zealander, the
second mate and I, were sent on shore to catch turtle. We hauled the
boat up and waited till the evening, at which time the creatures land to
lay their eggs.

Darkness approached, and we concealed ourselves behind some rocks, and
watched for their coming. Presently one landed, and crawled slowly up
the beach. Sam declared that she was as big as the boat. She was
certainly an enormous creature. Then another and another came ashore,
and commenced scraping away in the sand to make holes for their eggs.
We waited till some thirty or forty had come ashore.

"Now is your time," cried the mate; and rushing out, grasping the
handspikes with which we were armed, we got between them and the sea,
and turned them over on their backs, where they lay kicking their legs,
unable to move. We had brought ropes to assist us in dragging them down
to the water and hauling them on board. We had turned a dozen or more,
when I said to Jim.

"We mustn't let that big one go we first saw land."

She and the other turtles still on their feet, had taken the alarm, and
were scuttling down the beach. We made her out and attempted to turn
her, but that was more than we could do.

"She'll be off," cried Jim.

We hove the bight