f sunken
beneath the surface had caught in a piece of jagged coral rock, which
rose from the bottom covered with its freight of animation, and to this
they were anchored.

"Shall I wake them?" thought Mark as he looked round him at the sleeping
people; but he did not stir, for the act seemed cruel. They were
sleeping soundly and resting; the sun was rising higher and drying their
wet garments; and at last, deciding that it would be wiser to let them
wake of themselves, he turned his longing eyes to the soft white sand,
which he felt must be warm, and it was all he could do to keep from
lowering himself over the side and wading ashore, to lie down in it, to
cover his limbs with it, and try once more to sleep.

The act would have aroused the sufferers about him, and he refrained,
contenting himself with gazing down over the side at the coral rock
three feet below the bottom of the boat, and seeing there among the
miniature groves of wondrously tinted weeds shoals of silvery fish;
translucent shrimps; curiously long snaky, scaly looking objects which
wound in and out and undulated among the weeds, while every here and
there played about some tiny chubby-looking fish like a fat young John
Dory, but gorgeous in colour in the sunlit waters almost beyond
description, so vivid were the bands of orange, purple, azure-blue,
green, and gold.

Every here and there were curious shell-fish, some creeping like snails
with their heavy houses upon their backs, others were oyster and mussel
like, anchored and lying with their valvular shells half open; while a
couple of yards away lay one monster about two feet long, a bivalve with
ponderous shells, whose edges were waved in three folds, and a glance
inside whose opening showed a lining of the most delicate pinky tint.

The warmth of the sun and the wonders of the coral-reef beneath his eyes
made Mark forget his troubles for a time, but he was recalled to his
position by his sensations of hunger, a whine from Bruff, and an
inquiring chatter from the monkey, who changed his position and sat up
on one of the thwarts looking very skinny and miserable, his face
wrinkled and puckered, and the appealing inquiring look in his eyes
growing more intense.

Mark gazed from one countenance to the other, all haggard and troubled,
and he was beginning to long to awaken some one when the major stirred
slightly, and drawing a long breath rolled the half cigar to and fro
between his lips. Then wi