to allow of even a good boat going off to the people on the reef;
still more impossible would it have been to have reached them by means
of a raft. On examining the rafts which had been constructed to bring
the cargo on shore, both were found to have suffered by the hurricane.
It was determined, therefore, to build a smaller and more manageable
one, by means of which it was hoped to reach the shipwrecked people.
This work Captain Williams and his companions immediately set about
performing. The French lieutenant now thoroughly aroused, lent his hand
to it. In the course of a couple of hours a structure was formed with
which it was hoped they might venture out to sea.

Their next undertaking was to cut out a number mast, and fit a sail for
the raft. Still the sea would not allow them to venture from the shore;
they had, therefore, to wait patiently, watching in the meantime the
people whom they were anxious to rescue. The wreck seemed to be fixed
firmly at the end of a reef, and to have afforded them a shelter from
the fury of the seas, which would otherwise have washed them away.
Still, as they probably had no food nor water, it was impossible that
they could exist there for any length of time. Should any attempt be
made by those on the wreck to reach the shore by swimming, it was but
too probable that they would be carried off by the sharks, numbers of
which swarmed around the island. In the meantime, the men were employed
in getting up the tent, and in restoring matters to the condition they
were in before the hurricane.

The poor ladies had suffered greatly from the alarm into which they had
been thrown, and it was necessary they should obtain that rest which had
been denied them during the night. Mary, however, kept up her spirits,
and could not help expressing her thankfulness that Harry and David had
been saved, and were thus sharing with her the adventures which she was
not likely to forget to the end of her days.

"How curious it will be when they hear about us at home," said David,
"and that we were all wrecked together on this out-of-the-way island."

"But how are they to hear about us?" observed Mary; "we must get away
from this before we can send a letter home, and how we are to get away
seems the question."

"Some means will turn up, depend upon it," said Harry, "we shall be seen
by some passing ship, or if not, we must build a boat and try to reach
some of the nearest islands. We are not likel