he painter, and paddled out to the raft,
which rode to a buoy anchored about fifty yards distant from the beach.
Arrived alongside the raft he made fast the punt's painter to the buoy,
loosed the raft's huge triangular sail, mast-headed the yard by means of
a small winch which Nicholls had fitted for the purpose, cast off his
moorings, and began to work down the stream seaward, the wind being
against him. He was not long in reaching the open water, and as he shot
out between the two headlands which guarded the mouth of the harbour he
noticed with satisfaction that the cloud-bank to which Henderson had
warningly directed his attention had already completely risen above the
horizon, and was slowly melting away under the moon's influence. True,
the atmosphere was somewhat hazy, and the breeze was less steady than
usual; but the general aspect of the sky was promising enough, and if a
change of weather was impending it would not, the skipper told himself,
occur for several hours yet, or without giving him a sufficient warning
to enable him to regain the island in good time.

Arrived on the reef--over which, by the way, there was plenty of water,
four fathoms being the least the party had ever found upon it--the
expectant sportsman dropped his grapnel, lowered the sail, and threw his
lines overboard. The sport, however, was not by any means good that
night, for it was fully half an hour before he got a bite; and the
interval which followed his first capture was so long that the skipper's
interest waned and his thoughts wandered off--as indeed they very often
did--to his ship; and he fell to wondering what had become of her,
whether the mutineers had actually gone the extreme length of carrying
into effect their piratical plans, whether Sibylla and Ned were still on
board, and, if so, how matters fared with them. He was full of
commiseration for the two young people, both having taken a strong hold
upon his warm and kindly heart, and he scarcely knew which to pity
most--whether Sibylla, cruelly and perhaps permanently cut off from all
intercourse with her own sex and constantly in association with a band
of lawless men; or Ned, likewise a prisoner, with all his life's
prospects blighted, and in addition to this the never-ceasing care,
anxiety, and watchfulness which he must endure on Sibylla's account.
Most people would have been disposed to say at once and unhesitatingly
that the girl's lot was infinitely the worse of the