e you may
follow your own pleasure, if the savages don't knock you on the head and
eat you; and if some one doesn't take you off, which is not very likely,
there you will remain to the end of your days."

Gerald was beginning to answer this rude address, when Tom stopped him.

"We do not wish to have a dispute with you, Mr Betts, though we have a
perfect right to take an observation, or to do anything else which does
not interfere with the discipline of the ship," said Tom, as he turned
away, feeling that it was better to avoid any dispute with the
boatswain.

Tom accordingly signing to his companions, they all left the deck,
allowing the boatswain to pace up and down by himself.

Towards evening he sent the steward to them, and told them that he
expected all three to keep the middle watch.

"Your men will have the first watch," he said, "and I would advise you
to be on deck directly you are called."

As there was no reason to object to this they agreed to do as the
boatswain wished. They accordingly turned in for the first part of the
night. They had been asleep some time when a fearful crash was heard.
They, all three being awake, quickly slipped into their clothes.

"I knew it would be so," exclaimed the doctor, whom they met in the
cabin; "we shall none of us see another sunrise."

"I hope things won't be so bad as that," said Tom; "the ship seems to be
moving forward; perhaps she has merely touched a coral reef and has
scraped clear. We will go on deck and ascertain how matters stand."

The cries and shouts which reached the cabin showed that something
serious had happened. Scarcely had Tom and his companions gained the
deck, than again the ship struck with greater force than before, every
timber quivering from stem to stern. The foremast went by the board,
carrying with it the main-topmast, when a sea striking the ship swept
over her. The wild shrieks for help which followed showed that some of
the crew had been borne away.

"Can you see land?" asked Desmond of Tom.

"No; we are on a coral reef, and our chances of escape are very small."

Just then they heard the boatswain shouting out to the crew to lower a
boat, the only one remaining.

"Don't let us go in her," said Tom; "if the ship holds together, we
shall be better off where we are: when daylight comes we can form a
raft, and if there is any land near we may get there on it."

Both Desmond and Billy agreed to do as Tom proposed.

Just