, so he set out to
explore its wooded portion and ascertain what the prospects were for
living on it for an indefinite length of time.

An hour's tramp showed him that it was perhaps two miles long by less
than half that distance wide, and to all appearance no human being other
than himself had ever set foot upon it.

The northern part was simply a barren rock, fissured and seamed by the
action of the water, its base marked by a tossing line of foam of
ominous import, for it told of the sunken reefs hidden beneath its
restless ebb and flow, and extending far out to sea. The southern and
eastern end were covered with a dense growth of tropical vegetation, but
fresh water he did not find, or any animal, great or small. Many
varieties of brilliantly-plumaged birds flew screaming away at his
approach, but they were the only living things he saw.

He came back to the schooner, clambered on board, went to the galley,
got himself a good breakfast, and, while he was eating it in the shade
of the awning, made up his mind what he would do.

The rainy season was near at hand--a period which Captain Thorne had
told him was usually ushered in by frequent afternoon squalls,
accompanied by terrific thunder and lightning, which was more than
likely to be speedily followed by a hurricane of such violence as to
destroy in a second a vessel beached and helpless as was the Sea Eagle.
The tide was going out by this time, and the schooner's bow was buried
high and dry in the sand.

Frank's first act after finishing his breakfast was to take in the sail.
Such of it as he could not handle he cut away, and then began to carry
it on shore. The captain's small boat still hung in the davits, but he
did not need it as yet.

With the sails and spars he made a nice roomy tent, under the largest of
the palm trees nearest the shore, so he could always have the schooner
in sight, and also an unobstructed view of the open sea.

His object now was to make himself as comfortable as he could on the
island, and then wait patiently for a sail to come and take him off, or
something to turn up in his favor of a nature calculated to restore him
again to the world and enable him to carry out to the letter Captain
Thorne's dying request.

By noon he had his tent up; then he went to the vessel and quickly
removed to his new quarters one of the smallest of the casks of water on
deck, a case of ship biscuits and the tin box the captain had charged
him to gu