se of the boat, we had scarcely noticed
the huddled inky clouds that sagged heavily all around us. From these
threatening masses, seamed at intervals with pale lightning, there now
burst a heavy peal of thunder that shook the ground under our feet. A
sudden squall struck the sea, ploughing deep white furrows into it, and
at the same instant a single piercing shriek rose above the tempest--the
frightened cry of a gull swooping over the island. How it startled us!

It was impossible any longer to keep our footing on the beach. The wind
and the breakers would have swept us into the ocean if we had not clung
to one another with the desperation of drowning men. Taking advantage of
a momentary lull, we crawled up the sands on our hands and knees, and,
pausing in the lee of the granite ledge to gain breath, returned to the
camp, where we found that the gale had snapped all the fastenings of
the tent but one. Held by this, the puffed-out canvas swayed in the wind
like a balloon. It was a task of some difficulty to secure it, which we
did by beating down the canvas with the oars.

After several trials, we succeeded in setting up the tent on the leeward
side of the ledge. Blinded by the vivid flashes of lightning, and
drenched by the rain, which fell in torrents, we crept, half dead with
fear and anguish, under our flimsy shelter. Neither the anguish nor the
fear was on our own account, for we were comparatively safe, but for
poor little Binny Wallace, driven out to sea in the merciless gale. We
shuddered to think of him in that frail shell, drifting on and on to his
grave, the sky rent with lightning over his head, and the green abysses
yawning beneath him. We suddenly fell to crying, and cried I know not
how long.

Meanwhile the storm raged with augmented fury. We were obliged to hold
on to the ropes of the tent to prevent it blowing away. The spray
from the river leaped several yards up the rocks and clutched at us
malignantly. The very island trembled with the concussions of the sea
beating upon it, and at times I fancied that it had broken loose from
its foundation and was floating off with us. The breakers, streaked with
angry phosphorus, were fearful to look at.

The wind rose higher and higher, cutting long slits in the tent, through
which the rain poured incessantly. To complete the sum of our miseries,
the night was at hand. It came down abruptly, at last, like a curtain,
shutting in Sandpeep Island from all the worl