n a
low voice to Stephen; "but we must watch him closely for a short time and
see how he goes on. If he looks at the matter sensibly he must see that,
as I said, the gold is of no value to any of us at present."

"He spoke too humbly altogether in my opinion," said Stephen; "but as it
is evident that so long as we are here our interests are all alike, and
that the three of us will have a better chance of escape than one would
alone, he may give up all thought of the gold until the time approaches
for us to make a start."

The next day they went down, unlaced the fore-topgallant sail from its
yard where it lay on the beach, upon which it had been washed up after
they had stripped the mast, and proceeded to cut from it two lug-sails, so
as to save themselves the trouble of carrying the entire canvas up to the
tent.

CHAPTER XII.

DEATH OF THE CAPTAIN.

The work of making up the sails occupied the next three days. Some of the
canvas was unravelled for use as twine, and holes were made with long
sharp thorns. Jacopo, when not engaged in cooking, worked diligently,
seldom joining in the conversation between the captain and Stephen, a
conversation which turned principally upon the best method of building and
launching the proposed boat. Stephen's proposal was that they should, if
possible, first get up the deck planks, which could be done by driving
wedges between them and the beams, and after one was taken up, the work of
the wedges could be aided by poles used as levers. When all the planks had
been taken up as far forward as the water would permit them to work, he
proposed to blow up the after-part of the ship, by which means they would
obtain a large amount of beams and timbers that could be utilized for the
boat, at much less cost of labour than would be entailed by the cutting
down of trees. He proposed that the explosion should take place at night,
as the roar and flash would be supposed by the natives of the islands
near, to be something supernatural connected with the spot evidently held
in such veneration.

"Even were they to row across to see if anything had taken place," he
said, "which is about the last thing that they would be likely to do, they
would no doubt make for their usual landing-place; and as the greater
portion of the ship above water would have disappeared, anything that
remained would not be likely to catch their eye."

He