projecting peaks of the headlands on either hand.

"I hope no vessel will mistake your bonfire for a beacon," said Fritz,
as the darkness increased. "If so, and they should chance to approach
the land, God help them, with this wind and sea on!"

"I trust not," replied Eric sadly, already regretting his handiwork; "it
would be a bad look-out for them!"

But, as he spoke the words, the sound of a cannon could be heard coming
from seaward over the water; and the lad shuddered with apprehension.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

THE WRECK OF THE BRIG.

"Himmel!" exclaimed Fritz, rising up from the bench on which he was
sitting and clutching on to the side of the hut for support, being still
very feeble and hardly able to stand upright. "There must be a ship out
there approaching the island. If she should get too close inshore, she
is doomed!"

But, Eric did not answer him. The lad had already rushed down to the
beach; and, climbing on to a projecting boulder, was peering into the
offing, endeavouring to make out the vessel whose signal gun had been
heard in the distance.

The darkness, however, was too great. The heavens were overcast with
thick, drifting clouds, while the sea below was as black as ink--except
where the breakers at the base of the cliffs broke in masses of foam
that gave out a sort of phosphorescent light for the moment, lighting up
the outlines of the headlands during the brief interval, only for them
to be swallowed up the next instant in the sombre gloom that enwrapped
the bay and surrounding scene. Eric, consequently, could see nothing
beyond the wall of heaving water which the rollers presented as they
thundered on the shingle, dragging back the pebbles in their back-wash
with a rattling noise, as if the spirits of the deep were playing with
dice in the depths below under the waves!

At his back, the lad could see the bonfire still blazing, casting the
foreground in all the deeper shadow from its flickering light; and,
never did he regret anything more in his life than the sudden impulse
which had led him into so dangerous a freak, as that of lighting the
bonfire.

Who knew what further terrible peril that treacherous fire might not
lead to, besides the mischief it had already done?

Bye-and-bye, there came the sound of another gun from the sea. The
report sounded nearer this time; still, Eric could see nothing in sight
on the horizon when some break in the clouds allowed him a momentary