"it was coming this
way, but very slowly. I suppose that is to be expected of a ship
sailing unknown waters. They have nothing to go by, though they know,
of course, just what part of the round globe they are on."

She answered almost apathetically, as if she found it difficult to
talk, "It seems as if good sailors would lay by at night, when they do
not know their course, and there is land in sight,--land that has
never been explored."

"It does seem strange she should come right on," he assented. "For
surely no ship has ever sailed these seas before. Perhaps--"

"Perhaps what?"

"Perhaps she has been clear around; perhaps this is the only bit of
land left above a world ocean."

Robin shivered a little, and Adam turned toward the beacon, that had
glowed in vain for a year. It had been built on a high, altar-shaped
rock, across the gorge, where it could be kept up without leaving the
park. Robin went with him, and they gathered a pile of timber that
insured the brilliancy of their signal until morning. Adam piled on
the logs till the blaze leaped far up in the darkness; then they went
back to the boulder and sat down to think and wait.

"See how the wind is rising," said Robin, breaking a silence of an
hour, during which even Lassie had been motionless.

"But it is toward land," answered Adam.

"But the same wind that brings us the ship may dash it to pieces on
this awful coast."

"True, but she is far enough out to make herself secure. Oh, Robin,
suppose she sails around us and goes on!"

"That is impossible," answered Robin. "The people on that ship are as
anxious to find us as we can be to see them, if they are civilized at
all. Noah and Mt. Ararat are not to be named in the same day with us."

Adam crossed the gorge and added fuel to the fire. For a time the wind
increased in velocity until a stiff gale was blowing, then, as the
small hours came on, it waned, and the beacon flared straight up once
more.

"I wonder where's she from?" said Adam.

"I wonder where she is now," answered Robin.

"I feel sure," he said, "when morning comes we shall see her riding
the waves out there; and think of it, Robin, we can go!"

Robin made no reply, and her very silence made Adam repeat, but as a
self-addressed question, "Go where? Yes," he went on quickly, "go
where, Robin. Suppose the ship is all right, and that she stops, and
the crew are not pirates, and are willing to take us aboard, where are
we to go? Is