ot on anything floating from that day to this. He said he would rather
put a pistol to his head and knock his brains out."

"Ay, ay!" said Wicks. "Well, I remember a boat's crew that made this
very island of Kauai, and from just about where we lie, or a bit
further. When they got up with the land they were clean crazy. There was
an iron-bound coast and an Old Bob Ridley of a surf on. The natives
hailed 'em from fishing-boats, and sang out it couldn't be done at the
money. Much they cared! there was the land, that was all they knew; and
they turned to and drove the boat slap ashore in the thick of it, and
was all drowned but one. No; boat trips are my eye," concluded the
captain gloomily.

The tone was surprising in a man of his indomitable temper. "Come,
captain," said Carthew, "you have something else up your sleeve; out
with it."

"It's a fact," admitted Wicks. "You see there's a raft of little bally
reefs about here, kind of chicken-pox on the chart. Well, I looked 'em
all up, and there's one--Midway or Brooks they call it, not forty mile
from our assigned position--that I got news of. It turns out it's a
coaling station of the Pacific Mail," he said simply.

"Well, and I know it ain't no such a thing," said Mac. "I been
quartermaster in that line myself."

"All right," returned Wicks. "There's the book. Read what Hoyt
says--read it aloud and let the others hear."

Hoyt's falsehood (as readers know) was explicit; incredulity was
impossible, and the news itself delightful beyond hope. Each saw in his
mind's eye the boat draw in to a trim island with a wharf, coal-sheds,
gardens, the Stars and Stripes, and the white cottage of the keeper; saw
themselves idle a few weeks in tolerable quarters, and then step on
board the China mail, romantic waifs, and yet with pocketsful of money,
calling for champagne, and waited on by troops of stewards. Breakfast,
that had begun so dully, ended amid sober jubilation, and all hands
turned immediately to prepare the boat.

Now that all spars were gone, it was no easy job to get her launched.
Some of the necessary cargo was first stowed on board: the specie, in
particular, being packed in a strong chest and secured with lashings to
the after-thwart in case of a capsize. Then a piece of the bulwarks was
razed to the level of the deck, and the boat swung thwart-ship, made
fast with a slack line to either stump, and successfully run out. For a
voyage of forty miles to hospitable qu