e of which
were big enough to carry forty or fifty men. But nowhere did we see a
sign of the canoe of which we were in pursuit; and ultimately we were
driven to the conclusion that she had made the run across under sail,
and had secured a sufficiently long start to enable her to make good her
escape.

It was about four bells in the first watch when we ran out from under
the lee of the island and once more felt the full strength of the Trade
wind, which in the interim had freshened up until it was now blowing a
single-reefed topsail breeze; and at once the catamaran began to deluge
us with spray as we brought her close to the wind and started on our
long beat back to our own island. And now it became necessary for me to
use a little discretion, lest I should miss the island altogether; for
it was far below the horizon, and I had neither chronometer nor sextant
to help me to find it again, all I knew as to its position being that it
lay about a hundred miles dead to windward. Therefore I held on upon
the starboard tack until midnight, and thereafter tacked every four
hours, knowing that by following this plan we should be certain to pick
it up sooner or later. And so we did, catching our first glimpse of it
shortly after nine o'clock the next morning, when it hove into view
above the horizon broad on our port bow, rising a little higher as we
brought it abeam, and then gradually sinking again as it swung aft to
our port quarter. As soon as it sank out of sight we hove the catamaran
about, when it quickly reappeared, rising steadily above the horizon,
and this time showing much higher and more clearly before it began to
sink again. Finally, about six o'clock, just before sunset, we slid
into North Bay once more and beached the catamaran, much to the relief
of our companions, who were beginning to grow somewhat anxious as to how
our queer-shaped craft would stand the continuous strain of beating to
windward for many hours at a stretch against the strong wind and heavy
sea.

Now that the pursuit was over and had failed, and we were all together
again, we began to realise, as we discussed the incident, just what the
flight of those two natives meant to us. It meant several things: and
each one of them spelt d-a-n-g-e-r to us in big black letters; danger of
the most imminent and deadly kind; danger which was liable now to swoop
down upon us at any moment, and, if it caught us unprepared, simply to
wipe us out of exist