n the
shore. Again they drew very close to him, and now that they had
sufficiently mastered their fears, they approached and examined him very
closely, and proceeded at once to prepare their evening meal. First of
all they lit the fire, then they carefully placed their unresisting
victim in the saucepan, after filling it with water from the sea, and
were just about to lift it on to the range when I lost all patience, and
shouted from my hiding-place, "Hold!" so many times in quick succession,
and each time in a different tone of voice, that the cannibals must have
thought there were at least thirty men or more in hiding. At any rate,
they fled in the most abject terror, never to return.

'Giving them good time to disappear, I now emerged from my hiding-place
and approached the absent-minded creature, gently lifting him from the
saucepan, in which I found him still sitting and gazing out to sea.
Gathering together many sea-urchins, rock-beetles, and branches of a
succulent sea-weed, with which the beach had been strewn by the recent
storm, I prepared an exquisite stew, and made a very hearty meal. I was
also able to induce my companion to take some, without, however,
succeeding in breaking his train of thought.

[Illustration: FOR YEARS WE SAILED]

'For many months no other friend had I than this preoccupied curiosity,
who seemed quite unable to give me any clue as to who he was or whence
he came. Perhaps he had been shipwrecked there in childhood--who
knows?--and wandered there ever since, the wonder of every limpet or
lugworm that squirmed upon those shores, or the sport of every mer-kid
that flipped a fin in those unknown waters.

'To cut a long story short, I soon realised that here was the object I
was in search of, and that if this dreamy creature did not sufficiently
astonish old De Trevor, and compel him to consent to my marrying his
daughter, nothing on this earth would do the deed, so I resolved to
leave the island with my treasure as soon as I could make it possible to
do so. I set about making a raft, which I quickly succeeded in
completing, having since my childhood had a great knack at the making of
rafts, and, without undue delay, I embarked with my prize, provisioned
with as many shell-fish and branches of the succulent sea-weed as the
raft would carry.

'After some few months, and just as we had finished our last limpet, we
had the good fortune to be picked up by a tramp-steamer, bound for
Saskatch