ing surf, sparkling
diamond-like as it plunged down upon the reef over which we had driven
and then leaped and spouted thirty feet high into the clear air before
the wind caught it and tore it into mist; while shoreward there
stretched a line of curving sandy beach, about a mile in length, forming
part of the shore of a shallow bay into which we had driven and wherein
the schooner now lay stranded. The beach was distant about half a
cable's length from us, and was backed by a rocky cliff averaging about
fifty feet in height, crowned by a growth of low scrub, over the top of
which appeared what now seemed to be a low, flat-topped hill, distant
perhaps three miles inland.

The beach immediately to leeward of the schooner was strewed with
fragments of wreckage, among which we recognised the galley and some
fragments of the boats; but what gave us the greatest satisfaction of
all was to see two apparently inanimate figures--those of the carpenter
and the sailmaker--rise slowly to their feet, walk down to the water's
edge, stare intently in our direction under the sharp of their hands,
and then wave their hands frantically in response to our waving, as they
recognised the fact that we were aboard the wreck, and for the present,
at all events, safe. Then they put their hands trumpet-wise to their
mouths and evidently hailed us; but the roar and the crash of the surf
on the reef were so deafening that it was impossible for us to catch a
word of what they said, and, recognising this, they presently turned and
walked up the sand until they came to a dry spot, where they sat down,
with the obvious intention of awaiting events. As for Cunningham and
myself, we could do nothing but abide in patience where we were until
the surf upon the beach should moderate sufficiently to render it safe
for us to swim ashore, the wreck being swept so clean that, without
breaking up the deck, there was not a fragment of timber left out of
which to construct a raft.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

THE ISLAND.

By the time the sun had been risen about an hour, Cunningham and I
became aware that it needed something more than a mere shipwreck to rob
us of our appetite, for we found ourselves rapidly developing a good,
wholesome hunger; but, alas! there were no means of appeasing it, for
the schooner was full of water and everything in the nature of
provisions was quite un-get-at-able: we should therefore be obliged to
wait for a meal until we could get