ll!"

The Rovers worked better now, and the Zephyr moved with tolerable
rapidity towards the shore; but it was very dark under the shadow of the
trees, and Charles could not readily find the place where the materials
for the tent had been concealed. Each of the crew thought he knew more
about the business than the coxswain; and in the scrape the Zephyr was
run aground, heeled over on one side, and filled half full of water.

It required some time to bail her out; but it was accomplished at last,
the stakes and poles put on board, and they rowed off to the island
again. Tim had arrived before him, and had landed the stores.

"Where are the matches, Tim?" asked Charles.

"What are you going to do?"

"Make a fire."

"What for?"

"Some of us are wet, and we can't see to put up the tents without it."

"But a fire will betray us."

"What matter? We are safe from pursuit."

"Go it, then," replied Tim, as he handed Charles a bunch of matches.

The fire was kindled, and it cast a cheerful light over the scene of
their operations.

"Now, Rovers, form a ring round the fire," said Tim, "and we will fix
things for the future."

The boys obeyed this order, though Barney, in consideration of his
uncomfortable condition, was permitted to lie down before the fire and
dry his clothes.

"I am the chief of the band; I suppose that is understood," continued
Tim.

"Yes," they all replied.

"And that Charley Hardy is second in command. He can handle a boat, and
the rest of you can't."

"I don't know about that," interposed one of them. "He upset the boat on
the beach."

"That was because the crew did not obey orders," replied Charles.

"He is second in command," replied Tim. "Do you agree to that?"

"Yes," answered several, who were willing to follow the lead of the
chief.

"Very well; I shall command one party and Charley the other; each in his
own boat and on the island. Now we will divide each party into two
squads, or watches."

"What for?" asked Barney.

"To keep watch, and do any duty that may be wanted of them."

Tim had got this idea of an organization from his piratical literature.
Indeed, the plan of encamping upon the island was an humble imitation of
a party of buccaneers who had fortified one of the smallest of the
islands in the West Indies. The whole scheme was one of the natural
consequences of reading bad books, in which the most dissolute,
depraved, and wicked men are made to appear as heroes