er. Tessa stood up on the after-thwart, and watched
through Atkin's glasses; the heavy bullets all fell short.

"Never mind, lads," said Atkins. "God Almighty ain't going to let those
two men escape. Now, Harvey, what about ourselves? What is it to be?
Ponape, or the nearest land?"

"The nearest land, tor Gawd's sake," sobbed Jessop. "I ain't got long to
live, and for Christ's sake don't chuck me overboard to be chawed up by
the sharks like a piece o' dead meat."

"Man," said a faint voice beside him, "ye're ower particular, I'm
thinking. And it would be a verra hungry shark that wad hae the
indecency to eat such a puir chicken-hearted creature as yourself, ye
miserable cur! Are ye no ashamed to be whining before the two lasses?"

It was the dying Morrison who spoke. Tessa bent over him. "Do not be
angry with him," she whispered, "he is in great agony."

"Ay, I hae no doubt he's in verra great pain; but ye see, my dear, I'm
auld and crotchety, and the creature's verra annoying wi' his whining
and moaning and fearsome blasphemy."

Tessa, who knew as well as the brave old man knew himself that he was
dying, placed her soft hand on his rugged brow in silent sympathy; he
looked up at her with a cheerful smile.

Harvey and Atkins consulted. Ponape was between four and five hundred
miles distant, a long voyage for a deeply-laden boat without a sail. Two
hundred miles to the westward was Pikirami Atoll (the "Greenwich Island"
of the charts), and a hundred and eighty miles north of that was Nukuor,
the most southerly of the vast archipelago of the Caroline Islands.

"I don't know what is best for us to do, Atkins," said the trader. "At
this time of the year we can count upon every night being such as it was
last night, perhaps a great deal worse; and we must either turn tail
to the squalls or put out a sea anchor and drift. This means that
we'll make no headway at all at night time, and be set steadily to the
westward, and out of our course for Ponape. If we had a sail it would
be right enough, as we could lay up for there--within a couple of points
anyway. But we have no sail, and willing as the men are to pull, it will
be terribly exhausting."

Atkins nodded. "Just so, Mr. Carr. If, as you say, we had a sail it
would be different. Without one it may take us a fortnight or more to
get to Ponape."

"Quite. Now on the other hand, Pikirami Lagoon lies less than a hundred
and fifty miles dead to leeward of us. It is low