ably
damaged.

"D'you think our old harbour will be available, Moses?" asked Van der
Kemp as they came close to the first headland.

"Pr'aps. Bes' go an' see," was the negro's practical reply.

"Evidently Rakata is not yet active," said Nigel, looking up at the grey
dust-covered crags as the canoe glided swiftly through the dark water.

"That is more than can be said for the other craters," returned the
hermit. "It seems to me that not only all the old ones are at work, but
a number of new ones must have been opened."

The constant roaring and explosions that filled their ears and the rain
of fine ashes bore testimony to the truth of this, though the solid and
towering mass of Rakata rose between them and the part of Krakatoa which
was in eruption, preventing their seeing anything that was passing
except the dense masses of smoke, steam, and dust which rose many miles
into the heavens, obstructing the light of day, but forming cloud-masses
from which the lurid flames of the volcano were reflected downward.

On reaching the little bay or harbour it was found much as they had left
it, save that the rocks and bushes around were thickly covered with
dust, and their boat was gone.

"Strange! at such a time one would scarcely have expected thieves to
come here," said the hermit, looking slowly round.

"No t'ief bin here, massa," said Moses, looking over the side of the
canoe. "I see de boat!"

He pointed downwards as he spoke, and on looking over the side they saw
the wreck of the boat at the bottom, in about ten feet of water, and
crushed beneath a ponderous mass of lava, which must have been ejected
from the volcano and afterwards descended upon the boat.

The destruction of the boat rendered it impossible to remove any of the
property of the hermit, and Nigel now saw, from his indifference, that
this could not have been the cause of his friend's anxiety and
determination to reach his island home in spite of the danger that such
a course entailed. That there was considerable danger soon became very
obvious, for, having passed to some extent at this point beyond the
shelter of the cliffs of Rakata, and come partly into view of the other
parts of the island, the real extent of the volcanic violence burst upon
Nigel and Moses as a new revelation. The awful sublimity of the scene at
first almost paralysed them, and they failed to note that not only did a
constant rain of pumice dust fall upon them, but that there was