inctly, for it was just possible that they might find in
her hold a supply of food and things they stood so much in need of,
while, on the other hand, there was a strong probability that everything
had been washed out of her long ago, or that her former crew had taken
out all that was worth removing.

"What if we should find casks of biscuits and barrels of pork, to say
nothing of tea and sugar, and such like?" murmured the sanguine Otto, as
they poled slowly out.

"And what if we should find nothing at all?" said Dominick.

"O Dom!" exclaimed Otto, in a voice so despairing that his companion
turned to look at him in surprise. "Look! see! the ship has been on
fire! It can only be the mere skeleton that is left."

Dominick turned quickly, and saw that his brother had reason for this
remark. They had by that time approached so near to the wreck that the
charred condition of part of her bulwarks, and specially of her lower
spars, became obvious; and when, a few minutes later, they stood on the
deck, the scene that presented itself was one of black desolation.
Evidently the ill-fated vessel had been enveloped in flames, for
everything on board was charred, and it was almost certain that her crew
had run her on the rocks as the only method of escaping, her boats
having been totally destroyed, as was apparent from the small portions
of them that still hung from the davits.

"Nothing left!" said Otto. "I think that Robinson Crusoe himself would
have given way to despair if _his_ wreck had been anything like this. I
wonder that even this much of it has been left above water after fire
had got hold of it."

"Perhaps the hull sank after the first crash on the rocks, and put out
the fire," suggested Dominick, "and then subsequent gales may have
driven her higher up. Even now her stern lies pretty deep, and
everything in her hold has been washed away."

There could be no doubt as to the latter point, for the deck had been
blown up, probably by gunpowder, near the main-hatch, leaving a great
hole, through which the hold could be seen almost as far as the bulkhead
of the forecastle.

Hastening forward to the hatchway of this part of the vessel, in the
feeble hope that they might still find something that would be of use,
they descended quickly, but the first glance round quenched such a hope,
for the fire had done its work there effectually, and, besides, there
were obvious indications that, what the fire had spared, h