he time it
was unpleasant it was very exciting, and was an incident that they
should never forget all their lives.

The fog continued for three days, at the end of which time an easterly
wind set in and the air cleared, and the _Flying Scud_ weighed her
anchor and proceeded on her voyage. Ten days later a gale set in from
the south. The cold was intense, and the spray as it flew from her bows
cased her fore-rigging and deck with ice. The wind increased hourly in
fury, and the captain decided to run before it. "We have plenty of
sea-room," he said, "and shall get out of this bitter cold as we get
further north. It will not last long, I daresay."

Day after day, however, the gale continued, seeming to increase rather
than diminish in force. On the morning of the sixth day after it had
begun the passengers heard a tremendous crash on deck. Wilfrid ran up
the companion and looked out, and reported that the mainmast and the
fore-top-mast had gone overboard Fortunately the gust that had done this
damage proved to be the climax of the gale; by nightfall its force had
sensibly abated, and two days later it fell to a calm, and all hands set
to work to repair damages.

"I have no spar that will be of any use for a mainmast," the captain
said. "We must content ourselves with getting up a fore-top-mast and
then under what sail we can set upon that and the mizzen make for one of
the islands and try to get a good-sized spar for the mainmast. I reckon
that we are not more than two hundred and fifty miles from the Austral
Group. We have been blown nearly twenty degrees north."

Three days later land was seen ahead, and this the captain, after taking
an observation, declared to be Malayta, one of the largest islands of
the group.

"I would rather have gone on under this reduced sail," he said to Mr.
Atherton, in whom he had great confidence, "if we had been sure of fine
weather; but that we cannot reckon upon at this time of year, and I
should not like to be caught in another gale in this crippled state so
near the islands. So of the two evils I consider it the least to go in
and try and get a spar that will do for our purpose."

"What is the evil of going in?" Mr. Atherton asked.

"The natives," the captain replied shortly. "They are a treacherous lot
in all these islands; but the Australs bear a particularly bad
reputation, and we shall have to be very careful in our dealings with
them."

"Well, as we are forewarned they are