uld have been
a dead man. Good heavens! what an escape I had."

"I am glad to have been of service for once. You have been so kind to
me since I came aboard the brig that it is fair that I should do you a
good turn for once. I am not surprised you are shaken, for I feel so
myself. We had better both have a drink of wine, and then we can see
about our meal."

"No more lying down on the ground for me," the sailor said. "Once is
enough of such a thing as that. However, hand me the bottle. I shall
feel better after that."

Ralph looked about and presently discovered an open space, free from
fallen leaves or any other shelter for a lurking snake, and persuaded
Jacques to sit down and eat his biscuit and bananas in comfort. The
sailor did so, but the manner in which his glances kept wandering
round him in search of snakes showed that he had not yet recovered his
equanimity. When they had finished their meal Ralph proposed that they
should climb up to the highest point of ground they could find, and
take a view over the island. Two hours' walking took them to the top
of a lofty hill. From the summit they were enabled to obtain a distant
view. The island was, they judged, some seven or eight miles across,
and fully twice that length. Several small islands lay within a few
miles distant, and high land rose twenty miles off.

"This must be a large island," Ralph said. "Do you know where we are,
Jacques?"

"I have no idea whatever," the sailor said; "and I don't suppose any
one on board, except the officers, has, any more than me. The charts
are all in the captain's cabin; and I know no more of the geography of
these islands than I do of the South Seas, and that's nothing. It's
quite right to keep it dark; because, though I don't suppose many
fellows on board any of the three craft would split upon us if he were
captured, because, you see, we each have a share in the profits of the
voyage as well as our regular pay, and, of course, we should lose that
if those storehouses, which are pretty well choked up with goods, were
to get taken, there's never any saying what some mean scamp might do
if he were offered a handsome reward. So the fewer as knows the secret
the better."

"Look Jacques! Look at that full-rigged ship that has just come out
from behind that island. She looks to me like a frigate."

"And that she is," the sailor replied. "Carries forty guns, I should
say, by her size. English, no doubt. Well, we had better g