what
a splendid story I'll make out of all this when we get back to Cove!"

It was evident that the Bu'ster inherited much of his mother's sanguine
disposition.

"P'raps we'll never git back to Cove," said Gaff sadly; "hows'ever,
we've no reason to complain. Things might ha' bin worse. You'd better
go and haul down the flag, lad. I'll look arter the roast till ye come
back."

"The roast'll look after itself, daddy," said the Bu'ster; "you look
after Squeaky, however, for that sly critter's always up to mischief."

Billy hastened to the top of Signal Cliff just as the sun was beginning
to descend into the sea, and had commenced to pull down the flag when
his eye caught sight of a sail--not on the far-off horizon, like a
sea-gull's wing, but close in upon the land!

The shout that he gave was so tremendous that Gaff heard it in the cave,
and rushed out in great alarm. He saw Billy waving a shred of cocoa-nut
cloth frantically above his head, and his heart bounded wildly as he
sprang up the hill like a stag.

On reaching the flagstaff he beheld the vessel, a large full-rigged
ship, sailing calmly, and, to his eye, majestically, not far from the
signal cliff.

His first impulse was to wave his hand and shout. Then he laid hands on
the halliards of the flag and gave it an extra pull to see that it was
well up, while Billy continued to stamp, cheer, yell, and wave his arms
like a madman!

Only those who have been long separated from their fellow-men can know
the wild excitement that is roused in the breast by the prospect of
meeting with new faces. Gaff and Billy found it difficult to restrain
themselves, and indeed they did not try to do so for at least ten
minutes after the discovery of the ship. Then a feeling of dread came
suddenly upon the former.

"Surely they'll never pass without takin' notice of us."

"Never!" exclaimed Billy, whose sudden fall of countenance belied the
word.

Gaff shook his head.

"I'm not so sure o' that," said he; "if she's a whaler like the one we
came south in, lad, she'll not trouble herself with us."

Billy looked very grave, and his heart sank.

"My only consolation is that she looks more like a man-o'-war than a
whaler."

"I wish we had a big gun to fire," exclaimed Billy, looking round in
perplexity, as if he half hoped that a carronade would spring up out of
the ground. "Could we not make a row somehow?"

"I fear not," said Gaff despondingly. "Shoutin' is of