E TO SHELL-FISH--A PERILOUS SWIM--
LOOKING OVER THE ISLAND--ANOTHER STORMY ENCOUNTER--LABOUR IN VAIN--PRIDE
AGAINST REASON--BOW-MAKING--NEP FINDS A TREASURE.

Lord Reginald lay for some minutes on the beach utterly exhausted, but
not senseless. He recollected vividly all that had occurred. So
battered and bruised did he feel, it seemed to him that he had only
escaped from drowning to die a more lingering death on the barren shore,
or to be massacred by the savage inhabitants of the island on which he
had been cast.

"Is it my fate alone to have escaped among all the stout fellows who
manned the ship?" he at length asked himself. "Perhaps even now some
are struggling in the waves, and as I have been carried in safety to the
shore, I ought to try and help them."

This thought made him attempt to rise, and he found that he could do so
with less difficulty than he had supposed possible. The wind had begun
to fall almost directly after the ship had struck, but still the seas
rolled in as heavily as before. He knew, weak as he was, should he
venture into their power, that he might be lifted off his feet and
carried away in their cruel embrace. On looking around he saw a mass of
broken spars, torn canvas, and running rigging thrown up within his
reach. On examining it he found that he could unreeve some of the rope.
He set energetically to work.

By using a knife which he fortunately had in his pocket, he was able to
cut off several lengths, which, knotting together, formed a long rope.
Taking three spars he forced them with all his might, in the form of a
triangle, into the sand, and secured one end of the rope to the spar
nearest the sea, while the other end he fastened round his waist. This
done he was able to advance further into the water than he would
otherwise have ventured to do.

He stood listening and straining his eyes over the foaming masses which
continued to roll up unceasingly before him. He could distinguish the
black ledge upon which the _Marie_ had struck on one side, and on the
other a lofty point which ran out to an equal distance forming the bay
on the shore of which he had been thrown. The waters of the bay
appeared still covered with floating masses of wreck tumbling and
tossing about. While he was looking a crescent moon broke through the
clouds, revealing to him for an instant what he supposed was the bows of
the ship still holding together. The next instant the moon was
obscured, and