the men cried out, "We'll stick
by you, sir, and you won't have to be ashamed of us."

Several fires had been lighted, round which the men were collected,
cooking their suppers in a fashion in which Jack especially delights
when he has the chance; but the rising wind soon made it necessary to
put them all out, for fear of their setting the bushes and trees in
flames, or lest a wandering spark might find its way to the tent in
which the powder was stored. This, by Mr Foley's forethought, had been
erected some way from the camp, and a sentry placed over it. The next
thing to be done was to secure the tents with preventer-stays, as the
seamen called them. By this means, furiously as the wind began to blow,
not a tent was capsized. Being composed of sails, they were much lower
than ordinary tents, and thus much less exposed than such would have
been. They resembled indeed gipsy tents, though on a larger scale. It
was fortunate for the shipwrecked crew that they had been erected in
good time, for as the night drew on the rain came down in torrents, and
would have drenched them to the skin. The wind increased, howling and
whistling amid the cocoa-nut trees; while the sea, as it dashed with
increasing fury on the shore, uttered continuous and never-ceasing
roars, echoed, so it seemed, by the breakers on the more distant reefs.
The commander, who had scarcely closed his eyes on board, shared a tent
with his lieutenants and the surgeon. His chief care, for the present
was over, and he at length fell fast asleep.

"It is a hard trial for him, poor man," observed the surgeon, as he and
the two lieutenants sat at their table at the further end of the tent.
"Though it may not be the commander's fault when he loses his ship, he
must feel it dreadfully."

"Somewhat as you feel when you lose a patient, Mac," observed Mr
Tarwig.

"Nay, nay," answered the doctor. "I have a better chance of getting
fresh patients, whereas the captain who loses his ship is often looked
upon as unfortunate, and may chance not to get another--"

"That he may have the opportunity of losing her, doctor, you would say,
just as you would desire to have the chance of losing some fresh
patients."

"You're hard on me, Tarwig," said the doctor. "My desire is to cure
them. And just remember that men's lives are not in our hands: all we
can do is to employ such knowledge as we possess. That may be but
little, I confess, for I tell you our ignorance