ked party.

CHAPTER FIFTY ONE.

FIRST GREETINGS.

Day after day passed by, and Harry and his shipwrecked companions began
to despair of escaping from the island. If Jack Headland had lived
there so many years without seeing a ship, it was possible that they
might have to continue an equal length of time unless they could build a
vessel in which to make their escape; but no wood was procurable, nor
did they possess tools fit for the purpose.

A gale of almost equal violence to that which wrecked their ship was
blowing, when Jacob, who had been on watch at the hill, rushed into the
camp with the intelligence that a sail was visible in the offing. Most
of the party hurried up to have a look at her. The general opinion was
that she had made out the island, and was endeavouring to give it a wide
berth.

"I am afraid that is more than she will do," observed Jack. "She is
fast driving towards the shore."

"Can she be the _Thisbe_?" exclaimed Jacob.

"I think not," observed Harry, "her canvas has not to my eye the spread
of a man-of-war."

As the stranger drew nearer, most of the party agreed that Lieutenant
Castleton was right, she was certainly not a man-of-war.

Their flag blew out distinctly in the gale.

Their anxiety for the ship's safety were at length set at rest. She
weathered the outermost point of the reef, but now they began to fear
that she would pass by and leave them to their fate.

Scarcely had she cleared the reef, however, than the sound of a gun
gladdened their ears: their flag was seen, and the ship hauling her wind
stood along the shore till she gained a shelter under the lee side of
the island.

The gale had by this time considerably abated, and it was hoped that a
boat might be sent on shore. They hurried across the island.

Just as the beach was reached a boat was seen leaving the ship. She
soon landed with the first officer, who no sooner heard Lieutenant
Castleton's name than he greeted him with a hearty welcome. It had been
feared, he said, that he and his boat's crew had been lost, for that the
_Thisbe_ had herself been in great danger, and had with difficulty,
after suffering much damage, got back to Calcutta. He added that his
ship was the _Montrose_, homeward-bound, and that after touching at
Bencoolen, she had been driven by the hurricane out of her course, when
the island had been sighted in time to weather it, though no one on
board was before aware of its existenc