the boat, proceeded with the rest inland. They
looked about in all directions, and yet no human being could they
discover. He at length began almost to fancy that they must have been
deceived by some means or other, and yet he was certain that the figure
he had observed at the top of the rock was that of a human being. I
should have said that when the boat was lowered a bottle of water and a
flask of spirits, with a small quantity of food, had also been put into
her. This the men carried, it being supposed probable that the person
on the rock would be suffering from hunger and thirst.

"It's of no use," observed Pat to one of his companions. "I knew it was
a ghost from the beginning, or may be just the devil in a man's shape to
try and draw the ship in to get her cast away. We none of us know what
tricks he can play."

At length the men began to be positively uneasy, and to wish their
officer to return. Mr Martin, however, had determined to examine the
island thoroughly, before he gave up the search, being perfectly
convinced that he had seen a man on the rock, though why he had
afterwards hidden himself was unaccountable.

The distance by water from the rock was, in consequence of the shape of
the shore, considerably less than by land, and this might have accounted
for their getting there before the person they had seen, but some other
reason had now to be found for his not appearing. The more level part
of the land had been passed over. No signs of water had been
discovered.

"Ah, poor fellow!" exclaimed Mr Martin, "he must, at all events, have
suffered greatly for want of that."

They now got near to the foot of the rock, on the top of which the man
had been seen. All the sides appeared inaccessible, and it was
unaccountable how he could have got up there. This further confirmed
the men in the idea that they had beheld a ghost or spirit of some sort.
Never, perhaps, before had their officer found greater difficulty in
getting them to follow him. They would have done so ten times more
willingly against an enemy greatly outnumbering them, with the muzzles
of half-a-dozen guns pointed in their faces besides. Mr Martin
continued to push on. At length he came to a rock in which was a small
recess. Beckoning with his hand to his men, he hurried on, and there he
saw, seated on the ground, the person of whom he had been in search,
with a boy apparently in the last stage of exhaustion in his arms. He
hi