e was agreeably disappointed, owing possibly to
the circumstance that in the hurry of pursuit the crew of the canoe had
omitted to bring their ammunition with them.

For the first four hours of their flight the voyagers were sailing
continuously among the group of low islets which George had seen from
the top of the hill; but about midnight, as nearly as they could guess,
the last rock was passed, and they found themselves in open water.

And now the want of a chart made itself disagreeably manifest. George
was quite seaman enough to be able to steer a tolerably straight course,
using the stars as a guide by night and the sun by day; but
unfortunately, having nothing but his memory to go by, he had only a
very vague notion of the proper course to steer, and of the distance
which they would have to travel. His plans, moreover, were by no means
fixed. One of his ideas was, to stand boldly out to sea in a
south-easterly direction, in the hope of hitting Jamaica, where they
would at once find themselves among friends able and willing to help
them. But against this plan there were several grave objections, the
chief of which was his uncertainty as to the exact position of the
island and the consequent probability that, from its small size, they
would miss it altogether. Then, again, they were absolutely without
food or water. It is true, there were a few scraps of putrid fish in
the boat, and Tom had found a fishing-line under the bottom-boards
forward, so that, having a line and the wherewithal to bait it, they
might possibly succeed in catching a _few_ fish. But then it would
obviously not do to rely on such a mere chance as that. Another idea
was to get into the open water southward of the Isle of Pines, and look
out for either an English frigate--one of which would be pretty certain
to be cruising in that direction--or an eastward-bound merchantman from
Honduras.

This plan seemed to George the most feasible under the circumstances,
and in favour of it he finally decided.

The first matter to which they devoted themselves, on finding that they
had no longer anything to fear from the canoe, was Walford's comfort.
The poor fellow made no complaint--indeed he had scarcely opened his
mouth to utter a word since the moment when he received his injury,--but
it had for the last two days been growing increasingly apparent to
George that his unfortunate rival was rapidly sinking into a very
critical condition. Under