ed the
fat until most of it melted, and then squeezed the remainder between two
flat stones. Then he poured the fat into another cocoa-nut half full of
milk, put three or four pounds of flour on a flat rock, made a hollow in
the middle as he had seen the servant do at home while making pastry,
poured the liquor gradually into this, mixing it up with the flour until
he had made the whole into dough. Then he cleared away a portion of the
embers, and dividing the dough into flat cakes placed these on the hot
ground. Half an hour later he cleared another space from embers, and
turned the cakes over, and in twenty minutes they were baked through. They
were pronounced excellent by his companions as they ate them with their
meat.

"We must not be too lavish," Stephen said, "as we do not know how long we
may have to wait here. I propose for breakfast that we have biscuits only,
then for dinner we will have some meat and biscuits again, and for supper
cold meat and cakes. How much meat do you think there is, Wilcox?"

"There is supposed to be a hundred and a half in that cask, Mr. Embleton."

"Well, that will last us just about a month," Stephen said, "at a pound
and a half each a day. I propose that we have that allowance for a
fortnight, and if there are no signs of the ship by that time we can then
reduce ourselves to three-quarters of a pound a day. At that rate it will
last for six weeks altogether. The flour and the biscuits would last twice
as long, but we must keep a good stock of them on hand, so as to have a
store if we take to the canoe again."

This proposal was agreed to. They had, however, been there about a week
when early one morning Joyce discovered a sail far away on the horizon. In
great excitement they hurried down to the canoe, which had been brought
along and hauled up on the rocks.

"Put her into the water to see if the sun has opened her seams."

Finding that it had done so, they filled her and then hauled her just
beyond the edge of the water. Then they went up to their tent again.

"There ain't much wind," the sailor said, "and it will die away altogether
in an hour or two. It is no good our doing anything until we see which way
she is heading. If it is the _Tiger_, I reckon she is making for this
spot, and we can wait till the afternoon anyhow before we take to the
canoe. If it is only a chance ship, and we find she is bearing a course
that brings her anywhere near us, we must take to the canoe a