e lagoon, and would there
sink. And with her would go all the material that I needed for the
completion of the cutter.

Then there was the cutter herself, or at least as much of her as had
thus far been put together. How would she stand the buffeting to which
she was being subjected? I was hopeful, for she was at this time merely
a skeleton, and a very imperfect skeleton at that; consequently there
would not be much for the wind to take hold of; yet I was anxious too,
for I feared lest the heavy rain might have displaced some of the keel
blocks and so let the craft down and perhaps strained her out of shape.
So anxious, indeed, was I that I would have gone down to the cove at
once, despite the fury of the wind, but the night was so pitch dark that
I could have seen nothing; nor, single-handed, could I have done
anything, whatever might have happened; so I was perforce obliged to
defer my visit until daylight. But when daylight came I fought my way
down to the cove, against the gale that was still blowing, and there
found, to my inexpressible relief, that nothing had happened but what
could be put right in an hour or two.

I was naturally most anxious to ascertain what, if anything had happened
to the wreck, but it was not until nearly a week after the gale that
Billy had progressed so far toward recovery that I was able to leave him
entirely to the care of the natives. When, however, that moment arrived
I took immediate advantage of it, starting for the scene of the wreck
immediately after an early breakfast, and enjoining Billy not to be
anxious should I be detained until the next day.

With a fair wind all the way the boat made short miles of the trip, and
I reached the scene of the wreck fairly early in the afternoon; but at
least an hour before my arrival my worst fears were realised, for where
the wreck had once been there was now no sign of her. But I knew pretty
well where to look for her, and, coasting along the inner edge of the
reef, I ultimately came upon her within a few fathoms of the reef, sunk
in six fathoms of water, and of course irrevocably lost to us. I
thought, however, that possibly some useful wreckage might be floating
about in the lagoon. I therefore worked the boat over to West Island
beach, near to which I did indeed find a few planks and some small odds
and ends that had broken adrift or floated off when the wreck went down,
and these I formed into a small raft which I towed round to