d Oliver. "I thought you had left us in the
lurch."

"Just what I should do," said the mate, grimly. "How was I to come to
your help with a pocket knife and a marlin-spike? Those were all the
arms we had."

"What?" cried Oliver. "Where were the guns that Smith brought?"

"Never brote none, sir," cried Smith. "Didn't I tell yer the niggers
cut me off, when you found me with my toes a-sticking out of the
bamboos?"

No other explanation was needed, for the mate soon told them how he had
sailed round the island, and been trying again and again to communicate.
The next question was, what was to be done?

That was soon decided. The brig was by that time a heap of ashes, and
it was madness to think of attacking and punishing the savages; so after
a hearty meal, and some rest, the lugger was anchored for the night in
the sheltered waters of the lagoon, prior to an early start next morning
for one or other of the isles to the east.

But they were not destined to rest in peace. Soon after midnight, the
water began to be disturbed, the mountain burst into a frightful state
of eruption, and the sea rose and fell so that there was every prospect
of their being cast on the island, high and dry once more.

There was plenty of light for the evolutions, so hoisting sails which
looked orange in the glow, they ran for the first opening they could
find in the reef, passed through in safety, and stood out to sea, where
they lay to a few miles away, watching the awfully grand display of
fire, rising fountain-like from the volcano, down whose sides golden and
blood-red water seemed to be running in streams.

All that night the lugger rocked with the terrible concussions,
succeeding each other without half a minute's interval, and when the sun
rose the glasses showed a great smoke rising from a desolate-looking
shore, at one end of which the mountain, about half its former height,
was pouring forth clouds of ashes and covering the sea thickly as far as
eye could reach.

The glorious groves and bright scenery were gone, destroyed in a few
hours, and the strange convulsions which kept on occurring, rendered it
necessary to run as rapidly as could be for safer waters and brighter
skies.

As the day went on an island was reached, and an addition made to their
provisions and water. A few days later they were at the British port in
New Guinea, where they once more provisioned for their run south to get
within the shelter of the