his eyes
skinned", at the same time myself keeping as sharp a lookout as I could.
I estimated that, with the breeze then blowing, we ought to cover the
distance between the object and ourselves in about six or seven minutes
after clearing the reef, but I had no means of judging the time, except
by guesswork, out there in the darkness, and I was on tenterhooks lest
we should miss the thing and stand too far out, when the chances would
be all against our picking her up on the return journey. Therefore at
last, feeling that we must be pretty close to the object of our quest, I
sent Murdock forward, believing that he would have a better chance of
picking her up from there than by standing alongside me, although his
figure would greatly obscure my own view.

Accordingly the boatswain went right forward into the very eyes of the
catamaran, where he would be clear of the heaviest of the flying spray;
and he had scarcely taken his station when, without looking round, he
suddenly shouted:

"There she is, sir! Keep her away or you'll be on to her; hard up, sir!
So, steady! Now, hard down and shake her. That'll do, sir; keep her
at that. Luff a bit yet, sir. So, steady!" and, dashing aft, the
boatswain snatched up a small coil of line that we had made ready for
the purpose, and hurled himself recklessly at a dark mass that at that
moment came sliding close past what had been our lee side before I
luffed the catamaran into the wind. I heard the splashing clatter of
his boots as he landed upon certain objects that sounded like loose
paddles lying washing about in the bottom of the canoe--for such I now
saw the craft to be; saw him stoop, as though making fast the rope he
had taken with him; and then he shouted: "All fast, sir; let her go
off!" I put up the helm of the catamaran, and as she fell off and began
to gather fresh way Murdock hauled his prize up alongside and scrambled
out of her, snubbing the towline to a length of about two fathoms.

"It's a canoe, sir," he reported as he rose to his feet beside me, "and
there's people aboard her--natives--four or five, I sh'd say, though I
didn't stop to count 'em; and I'm blest if I know whether they're alive
or dead, but I think there must be life in one of 'em at least, for when
I jumped into her I stumbled over one, and I thought I heard a groan."

"Well," said I, "I hope we have been in time to save the poor beggars.
I suspect that they belong to the island that is visi