It can hardly
be that we three are the only survivors out of so many."

The party halted and looked back at the seething waves from which they
had just escaped.

"It would be foul shame to us," said the captain, "if we did not try to
lend a helping hand to our comrades; but we shall find none of them
here. I observed when they started that, in spite of my warning, they
made straight for the land, instead of keeping well to windward to avoid
being swept round that point of rock to the west. I led you in the
right direction, and that is why we alone are here. If any of the
others have been saved, they must be on the other side of that point."

While he was speaking, the captain had hurried into the woods, intending
to cross the neck of land which separated them from the bay beyond the
point referred to.

Their strength returned as they ran, for their intense desire to render
aid to those of their late comrades who might stand in need of it seemed
to serve them in the stead of rest.

"Come, quick!" cried little Maikar, whose catlike activity and strength
enabled him to outrun his more bulky companions. "We may be too late;
and some of them can't swim--I know."

They reached the crest of a ridge a few minutes later, and, halting,
looked at each other in dismay, for the bay beyond the point was full of
great rocks and boulders, among which the waves rushed with such fury
that they spouted in jets into the air, and covered the sea with foam.

"No living soul can have landed there," said the captain, in a tone that
showed clearly he had given up all hope.

"But some may have been swept round the next point," suggested Maikar
eagerly, commencing to run forward as he spoke.

Bladud followed at once, and so did the captain, but it was evident that
he regarded any further effort as useless.

It proved a longer and more toilsome march than they had expected to
pass beyond the second point, and when at last it was reached, there was
not a speck at all resembling a human being to be seen on the coast, in
all its length of many miles.

"No hope," murmured Bladud.

"None," returned the captain.

Little Maikar did not speak, but the expression of his countenance
showed that he was of the same opinion.

"Now," resumed the captain, after a brief silence, "if we would not
starve we must go straight back, and see whether any provisions have
been washed ashore."

They did not, however, return to the spot where they ha