my arm gently to arouse me.

"Harold," he said, in a subdued tone, "I want you to see whether I am
deceiving myself or not. Come to the prow of the boat and tell me what
you can see from there."

I rose slowly, and as I did so gave a glance at the Arab, who was lying
quite still in the bottom of the boat, where Denviers had commanded him
to rest some hours before. Then, following the direction in which my
companion pointed, I looked far out across the waves. The storm had
abated considerably in the hours during which I had slept, for the
waters which stretched round us were becoming as still as the starlit
sky above. Looking carefully ahead of us, I thought that in the distance
I could discern the faint flicker of a flame, and accordingly pointed it
out to Denviers.

"Then I am not mistaken," he exclaimed. "I have been watching it for
some time, and as the waves have become less violent, it seemed to shine
out; but I was afraid that after all I might be deluding myself by
raising such a hope of assistance, for, as you know, our guide Hassan
has been seeing land all day, which, unfortunately for us, only existed
in his imagination."

"He is asleep," I responded; "we will watch this light together, and
when we get near to it, then he can be awakened if necessary." We slowly
drew closer and closer to the flame, and then we thought that we could
discern before us the mast of a vessel, from which the light seemed to
be hung out into the air. At last we were sufficiently near to clearly
distinguish the mast, which was evidently rising from out of the sea,
for the hull of the vessel was not apparent to us, even when we were
cast close to it.

"A wreck!" cried Denviers, leaning over the prow of our boat. "We were
not the only ones who suffered from the effects of the driving storm."
Then pointing a little to the east of the mast, he continued:--

"There is land at last, for the tops of several trees are plainly to be
seen." I looked eastward as he spoke, and then back again to the mast of
the vessel.

"We have been seen by those clinging yonder," I exclaimed. "There is a
man evidently signalling to us to save him." Denviers scanned the mast
before us, and replied:--

"There is only one man clinging there, Harold. What a strange being he
is--look!" Clinging to the rigging with one hand, a man, who was
perfectly black and almost clothless, could be seen holding aloft
towards us a blazing torch, the glare of which fell f