is tent, or awning, had
been erected for such purposes, and had several advantages to recommend
it. It stood quite near the beach of the spring, and cool fresh water
was always at hand. It had a carpet of velvet-like grass, too, a rare
thins for the Reef, on the outside of the crater. But, there were
cavities on its surface, in which foreign substances had collected, and
this was one of them. Sea-weed, loam, dead fish, and rain-water had made
a thin soil on about an acre of rocks at this spot, and the rain
constantly assisting vegetation, the grass-seed had taken root there,
and this being its second season, Betts had found the sward already
sufficient for his purposes, and caused an awning to be spread,
converting the grass into a carpet. There might now have been a dozen
similar places on the reef, so many oases in its desert, where soil had
formed and grass was growing. No one doubted that, in time and with
care, those, then living might see most of those naked rocks clothed
with verdure, for the progress of vegetation in such a climate, favoured
by those accidental causes which seemed to prevent that particular
region from ever suffering by droughts, is almost magical, and might
convert a wilderness into a garden in the course of a very few years.

Mark did not disturb the happy security in which he found his people by
any unnecessary announcement of danger. On the contrary, he spoke
cheerfully, complimented them on the advanced state of their work, and
took an occasion to get Betts aside, when he first communicated the
all-important discovery he had made. Bob was dumbfounded at first; for,
like the governor himself, he had believed the Reef to be one of the
secret spots of the earth, and had never anticipated an invasion in that
quarter. Recovering himself, however, he was soon in a state of mind to
consult intelligently and freely.

"Then we're to expect the rep_tyles_ to-night?" said Betts, as soon as
he had regained his voice.

"I think not," answered Mark. "The canoes I saw were in the false
channel, and cannot possibly reach us without returning to the western
margin of the rocks and entering one of the true passages. I rather
think this cannot be done before morning. Daylight, indeed, may be
absolutely necessary to them; and as the night promises to be dark, it
is not easy to see how strangers can find their way to us, among the
maze of passages they must meet. By land, they cannot get here from any
of the