e Frenchman now threw down his
paddle, and sat with his hands folded on his breast, awaiting his fate.
The boy, after speaking earnestly to his companion, who merely shook his
head, stood up in the prow of the canoe, and casting one shuddering look
at the dark column, he joined his hands above his head, and plunged into
the sea. In a moment he came to the surface, and struck out vigorously
towards us.

The canoe seemed already within the influence of the water-spout, and
was drawn towards it with the violently agitated waters around its base.
The Frenchman, unable longer to endure the awful sight bowed his head
upon his hands; another moment, and he was lost to sight in the circle
of mist and spray that enveloped the foot of the column; then a strong
oscillation began to be visible in the body of the water-spout; it
swayed heavily to and fro; the cloud at its apex seemed to stoop, and
the whole mass broke and fell, with a noise that might have been heard
for miles. The sea, far around, was crushed into smoothness by the
shock; immediately where the vast pillar had stood, it boiled like a
caldron; then a succession of waves, white with foam, came circling
outward from the spot, extending even to us.

The native boy, who swam faster than we sailed, was already within forty
or fifty yards of us, and we put about and steered for him: in a moment
he was alongside, and Arthur, reaching out his hand, helped him into the
boat.

The sea had now resumed its usual appearance, and every trace of the
water-spout was gone, so that it was impossible to fix the spot where it
had broken. Not a vestige of the canoe, or of her ill-fated company,
was anywhere to be seen. We sailed backward and forward in the
neighbourhood of the place, carefully scrutinising the surface in every
direction, and traversing several times the spot, as nearly as we could
determine it, where the canoe had last been seen: but our search was
fruitless: the long billows swelled and subsided with their wonted
regularity, and their rippled summits glittered as brightly in the
sunshine as ever, but they revealed no trace of those whom they had so
suddenly and remorselessly engulfed.

The water-spout which had first been seen, had disappeared, and a few
heavy clouds in the zenith alone remained, as evidences of the terrific
phenomenon which we had just witnessed.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

OUR ISLAND HOME.

THE ILLUSION OF THE GOLDEN HAZE--THE WALL OF BREAKERS-