us were inclined to stop and
examine it. I never have been quite certain what it really was. The
sand was hot enough to hatch a turtle's egg, so we laid Billy down on it
and set to work to rub him all over his body. After a time an eyelid
moved, and then his limbs began to twitch, and that encouraged us to rub
harder and harder, till at length, to my infinite relief, he breathed,
and, getting rid of some of the salt water he had swallowed, he sat up
and stared round him, exclaiming, "Hallo, mates, have you caught the big
fish? I thought as how I'd a grip of him myself." Billy never heard
the end of his big fish. When he attempted to put on his clothes, he
complained that he was stung all over, and so the men carried him just
as he was to the boat. They had, however, no little difficulty in
keeping him there, for when his hitherto impeded circulation was
completely restored, the stinging sensation increased, and made him feel
that only a plunge in the sea would cure him. This event had delayed us
considerably. We ought to have taken our departure from the island even
before Billy had begun to bathe, and so, when I looked at my watch, I
found that we were two hours at least behind our time. At last we
shoved off, but where the frigate was we could not tell. Grey thought
that she must have drifted round to the other side of the island. We
had been directed to keep a look-out for her, but had neglected to do
so. Then it became a question to which side she had drifted. To
ascertain, we lay on our oars, and found a current running to the east,
and so decided that she must have gone in that direction. We now pulled
merrily along, sure of soon falling in with her. Billy Wise was the
only unhappy one of the party. He could not tell what was going to
happen to him, till the men told him he must have fallen into a hedge of
sea-nettles, and that he would soon get well again. This comforted him
considerably, and so he consented to put on his clothes and sit quiet.

It was now growing dusk, when, as we rounded a point, Grey exclaimed
that he saw a sail ahead. I jumped upon the seat, and made out that she
was a schooner standing off the land.

"She hasn't much wind," Grey remarked.

"We might overhaul her," said I.

"We ought to do so," remarked Grey; "she may be an enemy."

"We've got arms, sir," said one of the men.

"And ammunition," added another.

"Many a rich prize has been taken by a boat's crew," obs