e-embarked, and the Count had lost
his chance of escaping for that time.

"It is better that it should be so," he said. "I should only have had
to answer disagreeable questions, and perhaps have subjected myself to
further indignities."

Hunger now compelled him to seek for food, and loading his gun, he
looked out for a bird which might come within range, but the birds all
kept at a wary distance. He observed, further to the south, that the
island was very much lower, and that the birds frequented it in greater
numbers; he accordingly bent his steps in that direction. It appeared
level, and, as far as he could judge, easy to walk over. On reaching
it, however, he found that it was sprinkled with so many shallow pools
that he would speedily wet his boots through, therefore, sitting down on
the first dry spot he came to, he pulled them off and hung them over his
shoulders.

"Come, I feel something like a sportsman now," he said to himself.

Immediately afterwards a duck came quacking by within range. He fired,
and, to his infinite satisfaction, brought it to the ground. He rushed
eagerly forward to secure his prize, and although it went fluttering on
for some distance, he succeeded in catching it, and, wringing its neck,
hung it behind him.

"I need no longer fear dying of starvation, even although I may have to
spend a day or two on this desert spot," he said to himself.

To his delight he brought down, before long, another duck, and was now
thinking of returning to the higher ground, when he saw a boat passing
near the further end of the low part of the island. He rushed forward
to make a signal, hoping to attract the attention of those on board, but
by the time he had got to the point to which he was directing his steps,
the boat was at such a distance that his signals could not be seen. On
and on he went; the sea-fowl came shrieking and quacking round him,
when, to his dismay, he observed that dark clouds were gathering in the
sky, threatening a storm of no gentle nature.

"This sort of work is all very well in fine weather, but I have no fancy
to be exposed to drenching rain and howling wind," he said to himself.
"I must get back, at all events, to the higher ground."

He had got so far from it, that this was no easy matter. Before he had
walked for many minutes, down came the rain like a sheet of water,
driven against him by the fierce wind.

He had now good reason to be seriously alarmed. The wa