. Three cheers for the bit of blue!"

The men shouted till they were hoarse, paused, and then cheered again,
while Panton turned now to where his friends were standing with the
mate, and with the tears welling in his eyes, began to shake hands with
first one and then another, all reciprocating and beginning in their
hysterical delight to repeat the performance double-handed now, as the
light grew broader and clearer. A soft, warm mellow glow, which grew
and grew till the huge dense steam clouds were seen to be rolling slowly
away in three directions, in the fourth--the north evidently, from the
direction of the golden rays of light--there was one vast bank of
vapour, at first black, then purple, and by degrees growing brighter,
till the men burst forth cheering wildly again at the mass of splendour
before them. For far as eye could reach all was purple, orange, gold
and crimson of the most dazzling sheen, then darkness once more; for the
sun, of which they had a momentary glimpse, was blotted out by the
rolling masses of cloud which were floating away.

But it was the darkness of an evening in the tropics. The light had
been, and sent hope and rest into their breasts, giving them the
knowledge of their position as they lay stranded upon an open plain with
the terrible convulsion of nature apparently at an end.

CHAPTER THREE.

"JUST NOWHERE!"

"One must eat and one must sleep," said Oliver Lane, "even if a fellow
has been knocked on the head and nearly killed."

Every one was of the same opinion; but though there were a few attempts
at jocularity, the mirth was forced, and all knew that they were trying
to hide the deep feelings of thankfulness in their hearts for their
safety, after passing through as terrible an ordeal as could fall to the
lot of man.

There was another reason, too, for the solemnity which soon prevailed;
the captain lay dead in the cabin--the man who not many hours before was
in full possession of health, and now sleeping calmly there, beyond
sharing the hopes and fears of those whom he had left behind.
Consequently, men went to and fro as if afraid of their steps being
heard, and for the most part conversed in whispers for some time, till
the question arose about keeping watch.

"There's only one thing to keep a watch for to-night," said the mate to
Oliver,--"savages."

"If there are savages here, would they not have been drowned, Mr
Rimmer?"

"Perhaps--or burned to death. Then