have been a tremendous sea to have carried that ship right through them
and chucked her up there where there are not two feet of water."

"The _Lady Vernon_, London," Joyce exclaimed at this moment, "I can make
out her name plainly."

"Then your eyes are better than mine, Joyce, for I can't say I can read it
yet. Row easy, men, and you in the bow keep a sharp look-out on the water.
If we were to come bow-on to a hidden rock we should have to wait ashore
until another boat came out to fetch us."

Rowing very gently the boat kept on her course until within half a length
of the ship, then she ran quietly up on a flat rock some seven or eight
inches under water. They could see now that the captain's conjecture was
correct. The ship had broken her back, having, as she was carried in on
the crest of a great wave, dropped on a sharp ledge of rocks about
amidships. The sea had rushed in through the hole in her side, and had
torn away all her planking and most of her timbers forward, while the
after part of the ship had held together. The hold, however, was gutted of
its contents.

"The natives have not been here since," Steve said as he pointed ahead
where, apparently far out of reach of the water, lay a quantity of
wreckage, splinters of planks, bits of timber, bales of goods, and a great
litter of loose cargo.

"It is of no use climbing up above," the mate said in answer to an offer
on Joyce's part to endeavour to reach the deck. "The waves, you see, have
rushed in through the stern windows, and have made a clean sweep of
everything. Half the deck has burst up and gone. We will have a look at
the things on shore. Step out, lads, and pull the boat a bit higher up."

This was done, and they waded through the water knee-deep to shore. The
wreckage lay a hundred yards further up, on ground quite twenty feet
higher than that on which they were standing. The bales were all marked
with the ship's name. There were no signs of casks or boxes, these had
doubtless been smashed into splinters. Among the wreckage five skeletons
were found. They searched further inland, but could discover no sign
whatever of life between the shore and a dense forest that began four or
five hundred yards away.

"It is certain that no one has escaped," the mate said. "In the first
place, no living creature could have ever gained his feet if cast up by
such a sea as that must have been. The first wave that struck her after
she was thrown up there must