"Oh dear!" said Ebony, opening his great eyes to their widest. "You no
kin lib long at dat rate. Better die on deck if you _mus'_ die; more
heasy for you to breeve up dar, an' more comf'rable to fro you overboard
w'en you's got it over."

With this cheering remark the worthy negro, seizing the chiefs each by a
hand, half constrained, half assisted them to rise, and helped them to
stagger to the quarter-deck, where they were greeted by Orlando, Captain
Fitzgerald, Waroonga, and the missionary.

"Come, that's right," cried the captain, shaking the two melancholy
chiefs by the hand, "glad to see you plucking up courage. Tell them,
Mr Zeppa, that we shall probably be at Sugar-loaf Island to-morrow, or
next day."

The two unfortunates were visibly cheered by the assurance. To do them
justice, they had not quite given way to sea-sickness until then, for
the weather had been moderately calm, but the nasty sea and stiff breeze
had proved too much for them.

"Are you sure we shall find the island so soon?" asked Orlando of the
captain in a low, earnest tone, for the poor youth's excitement and
anxiety deepened as they drew near to the place where his father might
possibly be found--at the same time a strange, shrinking dread of what
they might find made him almost wish for delay.

"I am not sure, of course," returned the captain, "but if my information
is correct, there is every probability that we shall find it to-morrow."

"I hopes we shall," remarked Waroonga. "It would be a grand blessing if
the Lord will gif us the island and your father in same day."

"Mos' too good to be true," observed Ebony, who was a privileged
individual on board, owing very much to his good-humoured eccentricity.
"But surely you not spec's de niggers to tumbil down at yous feet all at
wance, Massa Waroonga?"

"Oh no, not at once. The day of miracle have pass," returned the
missionary. "We mus' use the means, and then, has we not the promise
that our work shall not be in vain?"

Next day about noon the Sugar-loaf mountain rose out of the sea like a
great pillar of hope to Orlando, as well as to the missionary. Captain
Fitzgerald sailed close in, sweeping the mountain side with his
telescope as he advanced until close under the cliffs, when he lay-to
and held a consultation with his passengers.

"I see no habitations of any kind," he said, "nor any sign of the
presence of man, but I have heard that the native villages lie at the