ich rolled over it, now running up some way, now receding
with a measured, hissing sound, scarcely amounting to a roar.

Nub, who was sitting nearest the sea, had been looking out across the
sand. Suddenly he exclaimed, "I see someting! hist! hist! I know what
it is. Come along, Dan; we will catch it." Saying this, he started up,
followed by Dan. "You go on one side, I go on de oder, and den we run
as fast as our legs can carry us," he cried to his companion.

They were soon scampering along over the sand, at some distance apart
from each other. Not far from the water they again united, by which
time the rest of the party had got up, and were proceeding in the same
direction. They could just make them out engaged apparently in a
desperate struggle with a dark object; and shortly afterwards they heard
Dan's Irish shouts of "Hurrah! hurrah! Erin go bragh!" and Nub
exclaiming, "We got one big turtle. Come, Massa Shobbrok,--come, Massa
Lawrie, and drag him up. We get fine food for supper."

The mate had brought several pieces of rope, which were fastened round
the fins of the turtle, and the poor creature was dragged on its back up
to the encampment. The doctor was eager to cut it up; but the mate
suggested that it would be better to let it remain alive till the
morning, that they might be able to carry some of the meat home with
them. "At all events, we may hope, as this turtle has come to the
shore, that others may also visit it, and afford us an abundant supply
of wholesome food," he observed.

The turtle cannot move when turned on its back, but as a further
security it was tethered by the two fore paws to a stick stuck in the
ground near the fire.

As all the party were tired, they did not sit up late; but soon lay down
in their respective bed-places, with a few boughs stuck in the ground to
shelter their heads. They had not been long asleep when they were all
aroused by a terrific peal of thunder, and looking up, they saw that the
sky, which had been glittering with countless stars when they went to
sleep, was now obscured by dark masses of clouds rushing across it.
Vivid flashes of lightning illumined the air, now darting across the
ocean, now playing round the topmost boughs of the trees; while the wind
began to blow with great violence, increasing every instant, and sending
the leaves and twigs flying around them, sometimes tearing off huge
branches, and even breaking the stout stems in two, or hurl