ave, but that she
need fear no danger.

"The brig is deep and has a good hold o' the water," he said, "so the
wave is sure to slip under her without damage. I wish I could hope it
would do as little damage when it reaches the shore."

As he spoke a strange and violent crash was heard overhead, quite
different from volcanic explosions, like the falling of some heavy body
on the deck.

"One o' the yards down!" muttered the captain as he ran to the cabin
door. "Hallo, what's that, Mr. Moor?"

"Canoe just come aboard, sir."

"A canoe?"

"Yes, sir. Crew, three men and a monkey. All insensible--hallo!"

The "hallo!" with which the second mate finished his remark was so
unlike his wonted tone, and so full of genuine surprise, that the
captain ran forward with unusual haste, and found a canoe smashed to
pieces against the foremast, and the mate held a lantern close to the
face of one of the men while the crew were examining the others.

A single glance told the captain that the mud-bespattered figure that
lay before him as if dead was none other than his own son! The great
wave had caught the frail craft on its crest, and, sweeping it along
with lightning speed for a short distance, had hurled it on the deck of
the _Sunshine_ with such violence as to completely stun the whole crew.
Even Spinkie lay in a melancholy little heap in the lee scuppers.

You think this a far-fetched coincidence, good reader! Well, all we can
say is that we could tell you of another--a double--coincidence, which
was far more extraordinary than this one, but as it has nothing to do
with our tale we refrain from inflicting it on you.

CHAPTER XXVI.

A CLIMAX.

Three of those who had tumbled thus unceremoniously on the deck of the
_Sunshine_ were soon sufficiently recovered to sit up and look around in
dazed astonishment--namely Nigel, Moses, and the monkey--but the hermit
still lay prone where he had been cast, with a pretty severe wound on
his head, from which blood was flowing freely.

"Nigel, my boy!"

"Father!" exclaimed the youth. "Where am I? What has happened?"

"Don't excite yourself, lad," said the mariner, stooping and whispering
into his son's ear. "We've got _her_ aboard!"

No treatment could have been more effectual in bringing Nigel to his
senses than this whisper.

"Is--is--Van der Kemp safe?" he asked anxiously.

"All right--only stunned, I think. That's him they're just goin' to
carry below. Put 'im in my