g the ruins.
A small supply of food and water was also transferred to this islet.

While these dispositions were in progress, Raoul himself, assisted by
his sailing-master, prepared to heave the lugger off the rocks. To this,
at present the most important duty, our hero gave his personal
inspection; for it required skill, judgment, and caution. The physical
force of the crew was reserved to aid in the attempt. At length
everything was ready, and the instant had arrived when the momentous
trial was to be made. The lugger had now been ashore quite four hours,
and the sun had been up fully three. By this time, Raoul calculated that
the English, at Capri, knew of his misfortune, and little leisure
remained in which to do a vast deal of work. The hands were all summoned
to the bars, therefore, and the toil of heaving commenced.

As soon as the cable got the strain, Raoul felt satisfied that the
anchor would hold. Fortunately, a fluke had taken a rock, a circumstance
that could be known only by the result; but, so long as the iron held
together, there was no danger of that material agent's failing them. The
last part of the process of lightening was now performed as rapidly as
possible, and then came the trial-heave at the bars. Every effort was
fruitless, however, inch being gained after inch, until it seemed as if
the hemp of the cable were extending its minutest fibres, without the
hull's moving any more than the rocks on which it lay. Even the boys
were called to the bars; but the united force of all hands, the officers
included, produced no change. There was an instant when Raoul fancied
his best course would be to set fire to the hulk, get on board the
felucca, and sweep off to the southward, in season to avoid the
expected visit from the English. He even called his officers together,
and laid the proposition before them. But the project was too feebly
urged, and it met with too little response in the breasts of his
auditors to be successful. The idea of abandoning that beautiful and
faultless little craft was too painful while the remotest hope of
preserving it remained.

Raoul had measured his hours with the accuracy of a prudent general. It
was now almost time for the English boats to appear, and he began to
hope that the Neapolitans had made the great mistake of sending their
information to the fleet off Naples, rather than carrying it to the
ships at Capri. Should it prove so, he had still the day before him, and