isn't
the way to get home again. Never fear but a ship will pass the island
and pick us up. We can't be far out of the ordinary course of the
steamers. We shall be here a day or two only, or a week, perhaps. What
do you say, Jackson?"

Jackson drew the back of his hand across his mouth, and seemed to
meditate a reply; but while he considered the matter, the steerage
passenger spoke for the first time.

"Mr. Heron is right," he said, causing Percival a moment's surprise at
the fact of his name being so accurately known by a man to whom he had
never spoken either on board the _Arizona_ or since they landed. "We all
ought to feel thankful to Almighty God for bringing us safe to land,
instead of grumbling that the island has no inhabitants. We have had a
wonderful escape."

"And so say I, sir," said Jackson, touching an imaginary cap with his
forefinger, while Barry and Fenwick both looked a little ashamed of
themselves, and Pollard mechanically followed the example set by the
sailor. "Them as grumbles had better keep out of my sight unless they
want to be kicked."

"You're fine fellows, both of you," cried Percival, heartily. And then
he shook hands with Jackson, and would have followed suit with the
steerage passenger, had not Mackay drawn back his hand.

"I'm not in condition for shaking hands with anybody," he said, with a
smile; and Percival remembered his burns and was content.

"I know this place," said Jackson, looking round him presently. "It's a
dangerous reef, and there's been a many accidents near it. Ships give it
a wide berth, as a general rule." The men's faces drooped when they
heard this sentence. "The _Duncan Dunbar_ was wrecked here on the way to
Auckland. The _Mercurius_, coming back from Sydney by way of 'Frisco,
she was wrecked, too--in '70. It's the Rocas Reef, mates, which you may
have heard of or you may not; and, as near as I remember, it's about
three degrees south of the Line: longitude thirty-three twenty, west."

"I remember now," said Percival, eagerly. His work as a journalist
helped him to remember the event to which Jackson alluded. "The men of
the _Mercurius_ found some iron tanks filled with water, left by the
_Duncan Dunbar_ people. We might go and see if they are still here. But
first we must attend to this man's leg."

"It is not very bad," said Mackay.

"It's tremendously swollen, at any rate. Are you good at this sort of
work, Jackson? I can't say I am."

"I know someth