ing whole
trees to the ground. Alice was sheltered in her hut; the mate did not
at first like to propose that she should leave it, but he watched with
great anxiety the tree-tops bending. At last he felt that it would be
wrong for them any longer to run the risk of being crushed by a falling
tree, or being injured by the lightning which ever and anon played
around the trees near them.

"We shall be safer under yonder rocks than here," he said; "although our
little lady will, I fear, soon be drenched to the skin."

The doctor agreed with him. "And the sooner we are off the better," he
added. The mate, therefore, called to Alice, and, accompanied by Walter
and the rest of the party, hurried down to a high rock which overhung
the beach, where a hollow at the bottom of it afforded some protection
from the storm. Scarcely had they left their encampment when a
tremendous crash was heard; and Walter, looking back, saw that a tall
tree had fallen nearly over the spot where they had been sitting, and
directly on Alice's hut. Most mercifully had they been preserved; a
moment later, and his dear little sister must have been crushed to
death. They all sat down in the cave, with Alice in the midst of them--
by which means they managed to shield her from the rain, which came
pouring down in torrents--and they could hear the water rushing over the
ground like a mill-sluice. Looking out seaward, they saw the waves,
foam-crested, rolling in large billows across the channel; but, happily,
as they were on the lee side of the island, the surf did not reach them,
though it sometimes came hissing up to within twenty feet of where they
were sitting. The question was, whether the tide was rising. If it
was, too probably they might be driven from their retreat, and be
compelled to retire back to the high ground, where they would be again
exposed to the danger of falling trees. They anxiously watched the
foaming waters which thundered and dashed on the projecting rocks, and,
as the seas came rolling round from the weather side, sent the white
foam high into the air, glittering brightly amid the darkness during the
repeated flashes of vivid lightning which darted from the clouds.

"What should we have done had we been at sea!" exclaimed Alice.

"I tink we all go to de bottom," observed Nub. "Bery glad we here."

"We may all be very thankful that we are here," said the mate. "I
dreaded bad weather when I first thought of continuin