tain Amber, of
whose fortunes and whose whereabouts we knew absolutely nothing. If he
failed to meet a ship he was to return to Early Island. What might not
be his fate? To diminish in some degree the chance of this catastrophe,
we resolved to erect some signal on the highest point of Fair Island, in
the hope that it would have the result of attracting his attention and
leading him to suppose that the whole of the ship's company were settled
down there.

There was no difficulty in the making of such a signal. We had a flag
with us in the boat, and all that it was necessary to do was to fix it
to the summit of one of the tall trees that crowned the hill which
sprang from the centre of Fair Island. In a few hours the flag was
flying gallantly enough from its primitive flag-staff, a sufficiently
conspicuous object even with a gentle breeze to serve, as we hoped, our
turn.

In the two days that followed upon the visit of the pirates we were busy
victualling the stockade and supplying it with water, looking to our
arms and ammunition, and, which was of first importance, in building a
strong fence, loopholed like the stockade. This fence or wall led down
to where our boat lay, and enabled us to protect it from any attempt of
the pirates to carry it off or to destroy it. In work of this kind the
eight-and-forty hours passed away as swiftly as if they had been but so
many minutes.

On the afternoon of the third day all our preparations were completed,
and I was convinced that within that stockade our scanty force could
keep the pirates at bay for a month of Sundays, so long as they did not
succeed in getting sufficiently close to employ fire as a means of
forcing an entrance. But though I felt cheered I noticed that there was
no corresponding cheerfulness in Lancelot's face. He never looked
despondent, but he looked dissatisfied.

I drew him aside and asked what troubled him.

'The moon troubles me,' he answered.

'The moon!' I said in astonishment.

'Yes,' he answered, 'the moon--or rather, the absence of the moon. Last
night was the moon's last night, and to-night we shall be in darkness
after sunset. It is under cover of that darkness that, some time or
another, to-night or another night, sooner or later, the pirates will
make an attempt to land. For you may be sure that they have not
forgotten us, and that they would be glad enough to pull down yonder
flag.'

I felt in my heart that what Lancelot said was true en