g along that cable to the shore. Jacko would have
thought no more of it than of eating his dinner. Had he felt so
disposed he could have walked along it, or hopped along it, or thrown
somersaults along it. But to proceed along it while it was at one
moment thirty feet above the sea, rigid as a bar of iron, and the next
moment several feet under the mad turmoil of the raging billows--this it
was that filled his little bosom with inexpressible horror, and induced
him to cling with a tight embrace to the hair of the head of his
bitterest enemy!

Having gained the shore, Jacko immediately took up his abode in the
warmest spot on that desolate sandbank, which was the centre of the mass
of cowering and shivering men who sought shelter under the lee of the
rocks, where he was all but squeezed to death, but where he felt
comparatively warm, nevertheless. When the sun came out he perched
himself in a warm nook of the rock near to Ailie, and dried himself,
after which, as we have already hinted, he superintended the discharging
of the cargo and the arrangements made for a prolonged residence on the
sandbank.

"Och! but yer a queer cratur," remarked Briant, as he passed, chucking
the monkey under the chin.

"Oo-oo-oo-ee-o!" replied Jacko.

"Very thrue, no doubt--but I haven't time to spake to ye jist yet, lad,"
replied Briant, with a laugh, as he ran down to the beach and seized a
barrel which had just been hauled to the water's edge.

"What are you going to do with the wood, papa?" asked Ailie.

The captain had seized an axe at the moment, and began vigorously to cut
up a rough plank which had been driven ashore by the waves.

"I'm going to make a fire, my pet, to warm your cold toes."

"But my toes are not cold, papa; you've no idea how comfortable I am."

Ailie did indeed look comfortable at that moment, for she was lying on a
bed of dry sand, with a thick blanket spread over her.

"Well, then, it will do to warm Jacko's toes, if yours don't want it;
and besides, we all want a cup of tea after our exertions. The first
step towards that end, you know, is to make a fire."

So saying, the captain piled up dry wood in front of the place where
Ailie lay, and in a short time had a capital fire blazing, and a large
tin kettle full of fresh water boiling thereon.

It may be as well to remark here that the water had been brought in a
small keg from the ship, for not a single drop of fresh water was found
on the sandba