might find ourselves in an exceedingly
awkward fix. I propose, therefore, that instead of attempting to go
inside to-night, we should shorten sail to our three topsails, go round
under the lee of the island, and either heave-to or stand off and on
until daylight. If we do this at once we may hug the lee side of it as
closely as we please, and subject that side of the island to a pretty
searching scrutiny while it is still daylight; and if the lee side is as
bare of any sign of inhabitants as the weather side seems to be, I think
we may venture with tolerable safety to go through the passage to-morrow
morning as soon as there is light enough, when we shall have the whole
day in which to explore the island. What say you?"

"Yes, Mr Troubridge, you're quite right, sir," answered the boatswain.
"That there island looks most terrible temptin', shinin' there in the
a'ternoon sunlight, and I should dearly like to stretch my legs by
takin' a run ashore there afore I turn in to-night--as I make no doubt
is the case with all hands; but what you say is right, sir; and what you
propose is the proper thing to do. Shall I go down on deck and start
shortenin' sail at once, sir?"

"Yes, if you please, Polson," answered I. "Meanwhile, I will remain up
here and see as much as I can."

Whereupon Polson descended the rigging, and, taking charge, proceeded to
clew up and haul down until the canvas was reduced to the three topsails
and the fore topmast staysail, afterward sending the hands aloft to make
a harbour furl of everything.

By the time that all this was done we had run down to within a mile of
the opening which I had detected in the reef, and I now perceived it to
be wide enough to allow of the passage of not only a single ship, but of
half a dozen vessels abreast, of the tonnage of the _Mercury_. At this
distance from the reef, and at my elevation above the level of the
water, it was possible not only to see this, but also to make out that a
fringing reef stretched along almost the entire eastern face of the
island, to the northern and southern extremities of which the barrier
reef was united with but one opening in it, namely the one that I had
already discovered. The fringing reef--the whereabout of which was
indicated by the pale-blue tint of the water, varied in width from two
miles, at the north-eastern extremity of the island, where the barrier
reef joined it, to an average of about half a mile along the rest of th