the
locker in which he had placed it two hours earlier. Mr. Boyle, who had
been attending to the signals both by siren and rocket, joined him.
Courtenay pointed to a pin-mark in the sheet.

"We were there at six o'clock," he said, and his voice was so steady
that he seemed now to be free from the least touch of anxiety. "The
course was South-40-East, and, against this wind and sea, together with
a strong current to the nor'east, we would make eight knots under easy
steam. Therefore, by eight o'clock, when the furnaces blew out, we
were here."

He jabbed in a pin a little further down the chart. Mr. Boyle, whose
peculiar gifts in the way of speech were accurately described by Dr.
Christobal, grunted agreement.

"Huh," he said.

Courtenay glanced at a chronometer.

"It is now a quarter to nine," he went on, "and I reckon that since the
ship swung round we have been carried at least six knots to the
nor'east."

"Huh," growled Mr. Boyle again, but he bent a trifle nearer the chart.
To his sailor's eyes the situation was quite simple. Unless, by God's
providence, some miracle happened, the _Kansas_ was a doomed ship. The
pin stuck where the Admiralty chart recorded soundings of one hundred
fathoms with a fine sand bed. The longitude was 75-50 west of
Greenwich and latitude 51-35 south. Staring at them from the otherwise
blank space which showed the wide expanse of the Pacific was an ominous
note by the compilers of the chart:

"Seamen are cautioned not to make free with these shores, as they are
very imperfectly known, and, from their wild, desolate character, they
cannot be approached with safety."

Right in the track of the drifting ship lay a vaguely outlined trio of
dread import: "Breakers; Islet (conical); Duncan Rock." Behind this
sinister barrier stood the more definite White Horse Island, while,
running due north and south a few miles away to the eastward, was a
wavering dotted line which professed to mark the coast of Hanover
Island. Lending a fearful significance to the unknown character of the
region, a printed comment followed the dotted line: "This coast is laid
down from distant observations on board the Beagle." So the sea face
of Hanover Island had not been visited by civilized man for nearly
sixty years! There, not three hours' steaming distance from the
regular track of Chilean commerce, was a place so guarded by reefs on
one hand, and impenetrable, ice-capped mountains on the other,