ram that runs between town
and port, and a cut on his head stopped his adventures.

Then they steamed for fourteen-hundred miles before the Northeast
Trades, with a misty blue sky overhead and long, white-topped seas
rolling up astern. The Trade breeze was cool and bracing, but they lost
it near the coast, and now the air was hot and strangely heavy. One felt
languid and cheerfulness cost an effort. The men had begun to grumble
and Lister was glad the voyage was nearly over and it was time to get to
work.

Lightning flickered on the sea, touching the back of the smooth swell,
and then for a few moments left all very dark. The moon was new, the sky
was cloudy, and the swell ran high, for it rolled, unbroken and
gathering momentum, from the Antarctic ice. When the lightning was
bright, one saw a low cloud that looked like steam, with a white streak
beneath that marked the impact of the big rollers on the sandy coast.
The crash of breakers came out of the dark, like the rattle of a goods
train crossing an iron bridge.

"Four fathoms at spring tides, and a shifting channel!" Brown remarked,
quoting from a pilot-book. "The depth, however, varies with the wind,
and a stranger must use caution when entering the lagoon." He stopped,
and laughed as he resumed: "If this was a sober undertaking I'd steam
off and wait for daylight."

"I reckon it would be prudent," said Lister dryly.

"We have nothing to do with prudence," Brown rejoined. "Our job's to
work in a sun that knocks a white man down, and stew in the hot malaria
damp the land breeze brings off at night. Cartwright's orders are to
lose no time and I want to finish before the fever finishes me. Very
well! When the moon is new, high-water's at twelve o'clock, and along
this coast sunset's about six hours later. If we wait for
noon-to-morrow, it will be four or five o'clock before we get on board
the wreck--I understand the tide doesn't leave her until about four
hours' ebb. If we push across the bar to-night, we'll see her at
daybreak and can make our plans for getting to work."

Lister agreed. Expenses were heavy and it was important they should not
lose a day. Moreover, Cartwright had hinted that he expected them to run
risks, and Lister had promised Barbara to help him out. If Brown touched
bottom steaming in, tug and barge would soon break up; but Lister was
not going to be daunted.

"I'll go down and raise some extra steam," he said. "You'll need full
pressure