discovered the group.

On the morning of the last day of the stay of the wrecking party on the
island, Lucy set out for this place, remembering that on her last visit
she had left a basket of cowries there. Bidding her beware of black
snakes, for the place was noted for these deadly reptiles, Lester went
off on board the _Harvest Queen_.

An hour afterwards, as Lester was engaged with Lindley in the ship's
cabin, a man on deck called down the skylight to him.

"Here is Mrs. Lester coming back, sir. She's running, and is calling for
you."

With a dreadful fear that she had been bitten by a snake, Lester rushed
on deck, jumped into a boat, and was ashore in a few minutes. Lucy, too
exhausted to come down to the boat and meet him, had sat down in front
of the now nearly empty house.

"I'm all right, Tom," she panted, as he ran up to her, "but I've had a
terrible fright," and she could not repress a shudder. "I have just seen
three skeletons in the thicket scrub, and all about them are strewn all
sorts of things, and there are two or three small kegs, one of which is
filled with money, for the end has burst and the money has partly run
out on the sand."

Lester sprang to his feet, and called out to the two men who had pulled
him ashore to come to him.

"Mrs. Lester's luck again!" he cried.

"Mrs. Lester's luck again!" bawled one of the men to the rest of the
wrecking party on board the _Harvest Queen_, and in an instant the cry
was taken up, and then came a loud cheer, as, disregarding discipline,
all hands tumbled into a boat alongside, frantically eager to learn what
had occurred.

Lester waited for them, and then Lucy gave a more detailed account of
how she made her discovery.

"I found my basket where I had left it, and had just sat down to take
off my shoes, which were filled with sand, when a goat with two of the
sweetest little kids you ever saw in your life came suddenly out from
behind a rock. The kids were not more than a day or two old, and I
determined to catch at least one of them to take home. The moment the
mother saw me she ran off with her babies, and I followed. They dived
into the thicket, and led me _such_ a dance, for they ran much faster
than I thought they could.

"I had never been so far into the scrub before, and felt a little bit
frightened--it was so dark and quiet--but I was too excited to give up,
so on I sped until the nanny and kids ran into what seemed a tunnel in
the thick scr