ged him sharply under the water, and brought him up
within the circle of the rushes. He quacked and struggled. Hazel soused
him under directly, and so quenched the sound; then he glided slowly to
the bank, so slowly that the rushes merely seemed to drift ashore. This
he did not to create suspicion, and so spoil the next attempt. As he
glided, he gave his duck air every now and then, and soon got on terra
firma. By this time he had taught the duck not to quack, or he would get
soused and held under. He now took the long gut-end and tied it tight
round the bird's leg, and so fastened the bag to him.

Even while he was effecting this, a posse of ducks rose at the west end
of the marsh, and took their flight from the island. As they passed,
Hazel threw his captive up in the air; and such was the force of example,
aided, perhaps, by the fright the captive had received, that Hazel's bird
instantly joined these travelers, rose with them into the high currents,
and away, bearing the news eastward upon the wings of the wind. Then
Hazel returned to the pool, and twice more he was so fortunate as to
secure a bird, and launch him into space.

So hard is it to measure the wit of man, and to define his resources. The
problem was solved; the aerial messengers were on the wing, diffusing
over hundreds of leagues of water the intelligence that an English lady
had been wrecked on an unknown island, in longitude 103 deg. 30 min., and
between the 33d and 26th parallels of south latitude; and calling good
men and ships to her rescue for the love of God.

CHAPTER XLIII.

AND now for the strange report that landed at Juan Fernandez while
General Rolleston was searching Masa Fuero.

The coaster who brought it ashore had been in company, at Valparaiso,
with a whaler from Nantucket, who told him he had fallen in with a Dutch
whaler out at sea, and distressed for water. He had supplied the said
Dutchman, who had thanked him, and given him a runlet of Hollands, and
had told him in conversation that he had seen land and a river reflected
on the sky, in waters where no land was marked in the chart; namely,
somewhere between Juan Fernandez and Norfolk Island; and that, believing
this to be the reflection of a part of some island near at hand, and his
water being low, though not at that time run out, he had gone
considerably out of his course in hopes of finding this watered island,
but could see nothing of it. Nevertheless, as his grandfather