r would-be visitors.

"No," observed Joe Dumsby; "they are brave, but hignorant."

"Faix, they won't be ignorant long!" cried Ned O'Connor, as the
little boat approached the rock, propelled by two active young rowers
in Guernsey shirts, white trousers, and straw hats. "You're stout,
lads, both of ye, an' purty good hands at the oar, _for gintlemen_;
but av ye wos as strong as Samson it would puzzle ye to stem these
breakers, so ye better go back."

The yachters did not hear the advice, and they would not have taken
it if they had heard it. They rowed straight up towards the
landing-place, and, so far, showed themselves expert selectors of the
right channel; but they soon came within the influence of the seas,
which burst on the rock and sent up jets of spray to leeward.

These jets had seemed very pretty and harmless when viewed from the
deck of the yacht, but they were found on a nearer approach to be
quite able, and, we might almost add, not unwilling, to toss up the
boat like a ball, and throw it and its occupants head over heels into
the air.

But the rowers, like most men of their class, were not easily cowed.
They watched their opportunity--allowed the waves to meet and rush
on, and then pulled into the midst of the foam, in the hope of
crossing to the shelter of the rock before the approach of the next
wave.

Heedless of a warning cry from Ned O'Connor, whose anxiety began to
make him very uneasy, the amateur sailors strained every nerve to
pull through, while their companion who sat at the helm in the stern
of the boat seemed to urge them on to redoubled exertions. Of course
their efforts were in vain. The next billow caught the boat on its
foaming crest, and raised it high in the air. For one moment the wave
rose between the boat and the men on the rock, and hid her from view,
causing Ned to exclaim, with a genuine groan, "'Arrah! they's gone!"

But they were not; the boat's head had been carefully kept to the
sea, and, although she had been swept back a considerable way, and
nearly half-filled with water, she was still afloat.

The chief engineer now hailed the gentlemen, and advised them to
return and remain on board their vessel until the state of the tide
would permit him to send a proper boat for them.

In the meantime, however, a large boat from the floating light,
pretty deeply laden with lime, cement, and sand, approached, when the
strangers, with a view to avoid giving trouble, took their pa