d hearty agin, that's a fact; fur my
innards got a'most druv into smash! But I'm picking up, I guess, and
feed reg'ler; so I s'pose I'll do, Cap, for an old hoss, eh? Durned if
I don't feel kinder peckish now. Hullo, my lily-white friend," added
he, catching sight of Snowball, who was bustling about the galley close
to him, for Mr Lathrope had gone down on the main-deck along with
Captain Dinks, to inspect the damage to the ship more narrowly than he
was able to do on the poop. "Ain't it near breakfast-time? I hope
you've got something for us as good as that lobscouse last night: it wer
prime, and no mistake!"

"Golly, massa, no time for um 'scouse dis mornin'--too busy bilin' beef;
but breakfast in um brace of shakes," replied the darkey, grinning from
ear to ear and showing his white teeth and full lips to great advantage.

"I'm durned glad to hear it," said Mr Lathrope. "Look alive, Ivories,
fur I feels a kinder sinkin' in my stummick that tells me it's time to
stow in grub. You're a prime cook, let me tell you, darkey, and hev
done me a heap of good since I've ben aboard!"

"Glad massa like um cookin'," replied Snowball; and he bustled back into
his galley with the intention of continuing to deserve the high encomium
he had received from such an authority on eating as the steward had
reported the American to be, while the latter proceeded to remount the
poop ladder and join Kate. She, however, was not now alone, Frank
Harness having seized the opportunity of seeing her on deck to come up
and speak to her; and the two parted with some little embarrassment as
soon as Mr Lathrope approached.

Towards mid-day, the _Nancy Bell_ had closed with the land so much that
its features could be distinguished. A bare, inhospitable coast it
looked!

It seemed nothing but a series of abrupt cliffs and headlands, six to
eight hundred feet high--as well as could be judged from the distance
they were off--at the base of which the waves thundered, sending up
columns of spray, without any bay or opening into which they could run
the ship with any chance of getting ashore in safety.

There was, certainly, a projecting cape stretching far into the sea,
like an arm, to the southward, to which point the coast-line trended,
and beyond that there might probably be a harbour of some sort for it
was to the lee of the island; but then, the wind was now blowing from
the southward and westward--the very direction almost they ought t