ils under the shade of a tree at some
distance from the shipyard--requested that, if possible, I would spare
Billy to assist him; and as the request seemed reasonable I acceded to
it without demur.

Thereafter matters went so smoothly for a fortnight or more that, in my
satisfaction at the progress we were making, I almost forgot the
suspicions which the attitude and utterances of the two seamen had
aroused when they so unexpectedly reappeared upon the scene. With their
assistance, work upon the cutter had progressed so speedily that the
planking of her was completed, the laying of her deck about half done,
her mast and bowsprit finished, and her mainsail and gaff-topsail sewn
and in process of roping; I therefore estimated that another month would
see my ambitious project complete and possibly ourselves at sea.

But my complacency was somewhat disturbed when, on a certain evening, I
was instructing Billy in the problem of the reduction of the sun's
altitude to the meridian. I had concluded my explanation of the
problem, when the boy, glancing up at me with a smile, remarked:

"That chap, Van Ryn, is awfully inquisitive, Mr Blackburn. He was
chaffing me to-day upon the difference in my manner of speaking now from
what it was when he first knew me, and I said: Yes, I had to thank you
for it, for you had insisted I should study and improve my education
every evening since we had been cast away. Then he wanted to know all
about what you had taught me, and how much I knew; and I told him that
you had been teaching me arithmetic, geometry, algebra, trigonometry,
geography, and navigation; and that last word surprised him, I can tell
you. It was amusing to see how interested he at once became; he wanted
to know just how much I knew about navigation; and he would hardly
believe me when I told him that I knew enough to enable me to determine
a ship's position, day or night, provided that the sky was clear and I
could get a sight of certain heavenly bodies. But when I insisted that
I could do all I had said, he seemed no end pleased. `Ah,' he said, `I
must tell Svorenssen what you say; he will be glad to hear it. It was
only a few nights ago that we were talking about the time when we should
leave these islands, and saying what a fix we should all be in if Mr
Blackburn should meet with another accident, or fall ill while we were
at sea. And so you really believe, Billy, that if such a thing should
happen, you could na