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n I caught the now familiar phosphorescent gleam of water which indicated the presence of a moving object. "Yes," I said, "it certainly is a canoe, Murdock; but she seems to be only a very small affair, such as need give us no very serious amount of anxiety. We will keep an eye upon her for a minute or two and see what she is after. Perhaps it is a messenger from the natives coming off to treat with us for the surrender of the wounded. I hope it may be, because then we shall perhaps learn what has become of the skipper and the rest of the missing men." As the canoe continued to approach, we observed a certain eccentricity in her behaviour, for instead of progressing in a straight line her course was a decided _zigzag_, now heading one way and now another, to the extent of about four points of the compass; still it looked as though she was aiming for the schooner, for her general direction of approach was toward us. I procured the night glass and brought it to bear upon her, and was then able to distinguish that she was indeed an exceedingly diminutive craft, containing only one figure, who seemed to be sitting in her stern, and was paddling somewhat awkwardly, first on one side of her and then on the other, which probably accounted for her eccentricity of movement. Furthermore, as I continued to watch, a certain suggestion of familiarity grew upon me in connection with the appearance and actions of the paddling figure; and finally, when the canoe had approached to within about a hundred fathoms of the schooner, I put down the glass and hailed: "Canoe ahoy! what canoe is that?" "Hillo! is that you, Temple?" came the reply in Cunningham's well-known voice. "Ay, ay," I replied, "it is I, right enough. And glad I am to see that you are all right. Do you happen to know anything about the skipper?" "Got him here, in the bottom of the canoe," was the reply. "The poor old chap is rather badly hurt, I'm afraid. Con-found this canoe! Why won't the wretched thing go straight?" "It is because you don't understand how to handle her, I expect," replied I. "Do you know anything about the three men who took you ashore yesterday?" "No," answered Cunningham. "Didn't they return to the ship?" "They did not; and I am very much afraid that we shall never set eyes upon them again." "Phew!" whistled Cunningham; "that's bad news, although I'm not very greatly surprised to hear it after the way that the beggar
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