ning if the water should
begin to shoal dangerously.

"Seven fathoms now, sir!" reported Hearst, the leadsman.

"Very well," answered Cavendish; "we are safe as yet," turning to Leigh.
"Let her go through the water."

The other vessels were strung out behind the _Stag Royal_, and they fell
into her wake for their greater safety; for she drew more water than any
of the rest, being a much larger vessel, and where she could go the rest
could follow. They were running along with a fresh breeze on their
starboard beam, and making about six knots an hour. They were therefore
rapidly nearing the island, and could by this time discern the solitary
occupant from the deck. He still continued to wave the red shirt, or
whatever it was, that they had at first seen, and it appeared as though
even now he could scarcely convince himself that he had yet been seen,
although the fleet was heading directly for the island, for he continued
his wild gestures--leaping into the air, and waving his arms like one
possessed.

"Six fathoms!" came the voice of the leadsman from the chains.

"We can stand in some way farther yet," commented Cavendish. "I want to
take the ship in as near as I can, so that the men may not have far to
pull in the boat. Furthermore, gentlemen, by the look of the sky,
methinks that a gale is brewing, and it will be well that the boat get
not too far away from the ship."

"Five and a half fathoms!" chanted the leadsman a few minutes later.

"'Tis well. Still keep her going as she is," ordered the captain.

The people on deck could now see the poor solitary on the beach quite
distinctly, and presently he came running down to the water's edge,
still waving his red flag; and so eager did he appear for rescue that it
seemed as though he intended to swim off to the ships, for he waded into
the sea up to his arm-pits.

"I pray Heaven that he does nothing so foolish!" murmured Roger, who
still remembered his own experience with the sharks.

The unfortunate man had no such intention, it presently appeared; yet
was he still in a sufficiently dangerous situation, for he stopped where
he was with the water up round his shoulders, and continued waving his
signal of distress.

"Five fathoms bare!" was the next report of the man with the
sounding-line.

"We can edge in even a little farther yet," remarked the captain. "But
I cannot understand," he continued, "why that man persists in acting so
strangely. He must