there in good time, and we've a long tramp
yet to get to the shore."

"Collect as we go?" said Drew.

"Oh no, let's be content with what we have. I shall have enough to do
to preserve mine."

"And I to arrange my little lot," said Panton. "Here, Smith, carry a
few of these."

"Certeny, sir, but there's heaps of as good stones close to where the
brig lies."

"Never mind that, I want these."

"All right, sir," said the man, cheerily, and with a bag of stones and
the ropes, and with Wriggs at his side shouldering the ladder, the
little party started back, discussing the results of their expedition,
and the fact that though they had not climbed to the crater, they had
half explored the great mountain. That, and the fact that there were no
savages to be seen, they felt was news enough for the mate, while, as to
themselves, they were all three more than satisfied with their finds.

The long tramp in the forest before dinner and the dinner itself made
the journey back to the shore of the lagoon where they had left the boat
seem doubly long, but they reached it at last, just as the west was one
glory of amber and gold, and the globular cloud high up over the crater
appeared of a rosy scarlet. The long fringe of cocoa palms, too, seemed
as if their great pinnate leaves had been cut out of orange metal, and
reflected as they were in the glassy water of the lagoon, a scene of
loveliness met the travellers' eyes that made them soon forget their
weariness, and set to with a will to drag the boat over the sand, and
then launch it in the mirror-like sea.

"Now for a gentle pull back," said Oliver. "Shall we do it before
dark?"

"No; and there is no moon."

"Never mind, we can easily run the boat in among the trees, and avoid
the coral blocks and the pools as we walk to the brig. Crocs are pretty
active of a night, so let's give them a wide berth."

"Yes, we must," said Panton, "for I daresay they'll be getting hungry as
they finish all the fish left in their larder."

"If it had not been for those reptiles in the pools they would have been
getting offensive by now."

"And when they have cleared them out, you think the crocs will journey
down to the sea?"

"I haven't a doubt of it," replied Panton.

"Then I hope they will not have begun their journey to-night, for I'm
too tired to care about meeting enemies."

Their row along the narrow lagoon was glorious with the cocoa-nut grove
on one side and the reef w