"I will," he replied, thoroughly beaten and speaking to me civilly for
the first time. "Thank ye, kindly, Cholly!"

By-and-by the crew turned out; and, after having their coffee, began
again the same work they had been at the previous day of lightening the
ship, Captain Snaggs superintending operations, and not looking a bit
the worse for his drinking bout in which Morris Jones said he had spent
the night with his kindred spirit, Mr Flinders.

The scene on the beach all that day and the next was a busy one, all
hands hard at it unloading the _Denver City_, preparatory to our trying
to restore her to her native element, the sea--which latter rippled up
along her dry timbers forward, as far as the mizzen-chains, the furthest
point where she was aground, with a lisping sound, it seemed to me, as
if wooing her to come back and float on its bosom again once more, as of
yore!

A great deal more had to be effected, however, before this could be
accomplished, for a sort of dock, or trench, had to be dug out beneath
the vessel's keel, so as to bring the water beneath her and help to lift
her off the sandbank where she was stranded; and this could not be done
in a day, work we our hardest, despite the men taking shifts turn and
turn about by watches at the task.

Fortunately, while unloading the cargo, a lot of pickaxes were found
amongst the miscellaneous assortment of `notions' stowed in the
main-hold; and these now came in handy, the hands learning to wield them
just as if they had been born navvies, after a bit, under the
experienced direction of Captain Snaggs, who said he had been a
Californian miner during a spell he had ashore at one period of his
life.

On the third day of this labour, the dock was becoming perceptibly deep
amidships and the water beginning to ooze through the sand; when, all at
once, Tom Bullover, who was wielding a pick like the rest, struck the
point of it against something which gave out a clear metallic ring.

After a dig or two more, he excavated the object, which, preserved in
the lava that lay beneath the sand and shells on the beach, was found to
be an image of the Virgin, such as you see in Roman Catholic countries
abroad. It was of a bright yellow colour and shining, as if just turned
out of a jeweller's shop.

It was a golden Madonna!

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

JAN STEENBOCK GETS CONFIDENTIAL.

"My stars, Chips!" exclaimed Hiram, who was standing near by when Tom
Bullover held u