will you join here?" said Syd,
who had gone in search of his companion.

Terry came up smiling pleasantly.

"I have bad news for you. The water is nearly done. Can you make out
why it is the frigate does not come?"

Roylance shook his head, and Syd turned to Terry.

"Of course I cannot say," replied the latter; "and I don't like to make
you uncomfortable; but the captain seemed to me to be such a particular
man, that I fear something has happened."

"Happened?"

"Yes; his frigate has either been taken by the enemy, or gone ashore in
the storm."

"Oh!" ejaculated Sydney, with an agonised look at Roylance. "You don't
think this?"

Roylance was silent.

"Why don't you speak?" cried Syd, excitedly. "It's absurd to pretend to
help one, and then stand and stare at him like this."

"I did not want to hurt your feelings," said Roylance, quietly.

"Never mind my feelings; speak out."

"I have thought so for the past two days," said Roylance, gravely.
"When Captain Belton put us ashore here, he meant to be in constant
communication with the rock. He knew that we could do little without
his help, and his being close at hand."

"But the storm made him put to sea," said Syd, excitedly. "I know
enough of navigation for that, though I've not been a sailor long. I've
heard my father and my uncle talk about it; and he has not had time yet
to come back."

His two companions were silent.

"Do you hear what I say? He has not had time to come back."

Still there was no reply, and Syd turned sharply away to go to the
stores and make out for himself how long their provisions would last.
But in his bewildered state, with the cares of his position increasing
at a terrible rate, the task was more than he cared to see to, and
asking himself what he should do, he took his way up the higher side of
the gap, climbing slowly, with the heat making him feel faint, higher
and higher, till he stood where the well-guyed flag-pole rose up with
its halyards flapping against the side.

"It seems too much for me," he thought, "and I may be wrong, but Terry
looked pleased at my being so worried. No water; the provisions running
out; my father's ship lost--no, I will not believe that. He's too
clever. It only wants the enemy to come out now and attack us to make
it more than I can bear."

He stood with one arm round the flagstaff, gazing at the distant port of
Saint Jacques, wondering whether the people there knew of the Engl