caused by the heat of the sun acting on the
many-coloured and many-shaped marine organisms and living coral.

Niabon, whose feet were protected by strong _takka_ (sandals woven of
coco-nut fibre), stepped lightly and swiftly on before me; I with my
heavy boots crushing into the brittle, delicate, and sponge-like coral,
startling from their sunbaths hundreds of black and orange-banded
sea-snakes--reptiles whose bite is as deadly as that of a rattlesnake,
but which hastened out of our way almost as soon as they heard our
footsteps. Here and there we had to turn aside to avoid deep pools, some
of which, though not more than ten fathoms in width, were as blue as the
ocean beyond, their rocky walls starting sheer up from their bases to
the crust of the reef.

[Illustration: At last we reached the ship 194]

At last we reached the ship, and stood under her bowsprit. She was
standing almost upright, wedged in tightly between three huge boulders,
one on her port, and two on her starboard side, and I saw that she had
struck with great violence, for just abreast of her foremast there was a
jagged hole through which we could see into her lower hold. The natives
had told us that there had been an unusually high tide when she ran
ashore, and had it not been for her bringing up against the boulders,
she might have torn her way over the reef into the lagoon, as she was
under a strong press of sail, and the sea was smooth, and the stars
shining brightly. Most of her copper had been stripped off by Hayes, but
later on I found all I wanted by crawling under the bilge, and prizing
off a few undamaged sheets.

"Let us find out her name before we go on board," I said to my
companion. "She's a foreigner, I'm sure."

Walking round to her stern we looked up and saw her name, _Agostino
Rombo, Livorno_, painted in white letters.

"Ah, I thought she was a foreigner, Niabon. I fancy we shall find a
strong smell of garlic as soon as we get on deck."

Turning up along the port side, we soon found an easy way of getting on
board, for just abreast of the mainmast Hayes's Chinese carpenters had
cut down the main deck from the water-ways to the bilge, so as to give
free access to the upper and lower holds.

We first examined the lower hold, which contained about two hundred tons
of New Caledonian nickel ore, and which, valuable as it was, Hayes had
not troubled about removing. In the 'tween deck there was nothing to
show of what the main porti