driven, they make rapid progress, and before midnight the
Milky Way is behind them and out of sight. But, though they breathe
more freely, they are by no means out of danger--alone in a frail skiff
on the still turbulent ocean, and groping in thick darkness, with
neither moon nor star to guide them. They have no compass, that having
been forgotten in their scramble out of the sinking ship. But even if
they had one it would be of little assistance to them at present, as,
for the time being, they have enough to do in keeping the boat baled out
and above water.

At break of day matters look a little better. The storm has somewhat
abated, and there is land in sight to leeward, with no visible breakers
between. Still, they have a heavy swell to contend with, and an ugly
cross sea.

But land to a castaway! His first thought and most anxious desire is to
set foot on it. So in the case of our shipwrecked party: risking all
reefs and surfs, they at once set the gig's head shoreward.

Closing in upon the land, they perceive a high promontory on the port
bow, and another on the starboard, separated by a wide reach of open
water; and about half-way between these promontories and somewhat
farther out lies what appears to be an island. Taking it for one,
Seagriff counsels putting in there instead of running on for the more
distant mainland, though that is not his real reason.

"But why should we put in upon the island?" asks the skipper. "Wouldn't
it be much better to keep on to the main?"

"No, Captain; there's a reason agin it, the which I'll make known to you
as soon as we get safe ashore."

Captain Gancy is aware that the late _Calypso's_ carpenter was for a
long time a sealer, and in this capacity had spent more than one season
in the sounds and channels of Tierra del Fuego. He knows also that the
old sailor can be trusted, and so, without pressing for further
explanation, he steers straight for the island.

When about half a mile from its shore, they come upon a bed of kelp
[Note 1], growing so close and thick as to bar their farther advance.
Were they still on board the barque, the weed would be given a wide
berth, as giving warning of rocks underneath; but in the light-draught
gig they have no fear of these, and with the swell still tossing them
about, they might be even glad to get in among the kelp--certainly there
would be but that between it and the shore. They can descry waveless
water, seemingly as tr