sort of low-lying cloud on
the horizon, was now plainly perceptible, a faint mountain peak being
noticeable, just rising in the centre of the dark patch of haze.

"Is it far off?" asked Fritz.

"'Bout fifty mile or so, I sh'u'd think, mister," answered the
skipper--"thet is more or less, as the air down below the line is
clearer than it is north, so folks ken see further, I guess. I don't
kinder think it's more'n fifty mile, though, sou'-sou'-west o' whar the
shep is now."

"Fifty miles!" repeated Fritz, somewhat disconcerted by the
announcement; for, he would not have thought the object, which all could
now see from the deck, more than half that distance away. "Why, we'll
never get there to-day!"

"Won't we?" said the skipper. "Thet's all you know 'bout it, mister.
The _Pilot's Bride_ 'll walk over thet little bit o' water like a race
hoss, an' 'ill arrive at Tristan 'fore dinner time, you bet!"

The skipper's prognostication as to the time of their arrival did not
turn out quite correct, but Fritz's anxiety was allayed by their
reaching the place the same night; for, the mountain peak, which had
been noticed above the haze that hung over the lower part of the island,
began to rise higher and higher as the ship approached, until its sharp
ridges could be plainly seen beneath a covering of snow that enveloped
the upper cone and which changed its colour from glistening white to a
bright pink hue as it became lit up by the rays of the setting sun--the
latter dipping beneath the western horizon at the same instant that the
_Pilot's Bride_ cast anchor in a shallow bay some little distance off
the land, close to Herald Point, where the English settlement on the
island lies.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

AN OCEAN COLONY.

Fritz and Eric wished to go ashore the moment the anchor plunged into
the water and the chain cable grated through the hawse hole; but,
darkness setting in almost immediately after sunset, as is usual in such
southerly latitudes, their landing had to be postponed until the next
morning, when the skipper told them they would have plenty of time to
inspect the little ocean colony of Tristan d'Acunha--that is, should not
a westerly-wind set in, bringing with it a heavy swell, as it invariably
did; for, this would cause them "to cut and run from their anchorage in
a jiffy," if they did not desire to lay the ship's bones on the rocks by
Herald Point, which he, "for one," he said, had no intention of doi