row out on the lagoon
in the morning, if it were not too rough, in the hope of catching
some fresh fish for breakfast. He assented to this plan, for
he himself intended to go aboard the _Arrow_ the first thing on
the morrow to look her over and see how she had weathered the
night. Wrapping himself in a blanket and bidding the boys follow
his example, he lay down beside the embers and was soon asleep.

Hugh and Billy, lovers of surf-bathing, would fain have taken a dip
into the breakers before going to sleep; but Alec sensibly counseled
them against this.

"Wait till daylight If you shed your clothes now and go in, the
mosquitoes will eat you alive before you're dry again," he warned
them. "Besides, it's dangerous to go in around these shores in
the darkness. You might stumble into a hole or a sea-puss and
be carried out to sea before you knew what had happened. And
Dave told me there are sharks that-----"

"Oh, forget it!" laughed Billy. "We have no intention of furnishing
supper to a shark. Anyway, real, live, man-eating sharks are as
scarce as hens' teeth---almost."

Nevertheless, being overruled by Hugh, who saw the wisdom of Alec's
advice, he promptly abandoned the desire for a plunge; and, as he
soon learned, they did well to seek the protection of their smoke
smudge, for the mosquitoes were truly formidable. Even under the
canopy of smoke, these noxious insects darted viciously to bite and
torment the campers. Time and time again, the boys were awakened
from sleep by the attacks of these buzzing pests; but at last they
grew more accustomed to such onslaughts, and pulling nets closely
around their limbs and faces, they sank into deeper slumber.

* * * * * *

"The evening red, the morning gray
Sets the traveler on his way.
The evening gray, the morning red
Brings showers down upon his head."

Hugh whispered these words softly to himself when he awoke in the
dim twilight hour just before dawn. It was still too dark for him
to distinguish objects clearly, and for a moment he felt that queer
sensation of being lost, of not knowing just where he was---that
feeling which sometimes comes to one even in the most familiar
surroundings. At once, however, it left him, and the little rhyme
crept into his mind instead.

"Wonder why I waked up so suddenly?" was his silent query as he
lay there blinking up at the sky, watching the few visible stars
grow pale and paler. "Thought I heard some