for
Nombre de Dios, where George hoped to obtain some clue to the
whereabouts of his brother Hubert.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

HOW THEY LOST TWO MEN, AND ENCOUNTERED A HURRICANE.

It was with a feeling of deep, indeed, almost perfect, satisfaction that
George Saint Leger stood upon the poop of his vessel that day, and
watched the tops of the coconut trees on "Treasure Island," as the men
had come to name the place, gradually sink beneath the northern horizon;
for not only had he insured the financial success of the expedition--so
far as human effort could insure it--by gaining possession of an
enormous amount of treasure, but he had placed that treasure beyond the
possibility of loss by the chances of battle and shipwreck at least
until the time should arrive to shape a course for home. Also, having
accomplished these things, he was now absolutely free to prosecute that
object which, in his eyes at least, had been the most important one
connected with the voyage, namely, the search for and deliverance of his
brother Hubert. There was also one other reason why the young captain
rejoiced to find himself once more out of sight of land, and that was
the state of the weather. Shortly after sunset on the previous day he,
in common with others of the ship's company, had noticed a gradual
lessening of the strength of the trade-wind, but everybody had then been
too busy to do more than just casually comment upon it; moreover the
decline had at first been no greater than had been before observed upon
more than one occasion. But the lessening process had continued very
gradually all through the night and was still continuing, to such an
extent indeed that by the time that the last signs of the island's
whereabouts had vanished, the speed of the ship had sunk to a bare four
knots, and that, too, with the wind broad abeam. It was not, however,
the mere softening of the trade-wind that caused George to congratulate
himself upon having secured an offing; it was the aspect of the sky,
which was beginning to awake within him--and Dyer, too, for that
matter--a certain feeling of uneasiness. For the _Nonsuch_ was now
within the limits of the hurricane area, the hurricane season had
arrived--as Hawkins and Drake had learned to their cost just a year
earlier, when, not very far from the spot where the _Nonsuch_ then
floated, their fleet had been caught in and all but destroyed by two of
those devastating storms that, for three months