d worse mischief befall them.

It was not a pleasant preparation for their meal, but the sea now calmed
down, the water of the little stream came gushing perfectly clear, the
sun shone brightly and not a cloud was visible; in short, but for their
memories, it was impossible to tell that anything had befallen them.
Still it required a little effort to sit down where only a short time
before the earth had been trembling, and it was impossible to avoid a
sensation of dread lest the trembling of the ground should only have
been the precursor of a terrible earthquake when the island would open
and swallow them up, and this idea was fostered by the behaviour of
Bruff, who kept running here and there snuffing the sand and uttering
every now and then an uneasy whine.

After the first few mouthfuls, however, their confidence began to
return, and a hearty meal was eaten, and supplemented by some draughts
of cool, sweet cocoa-nut milk obtained by Billy Widgeon, who contrived
to climb a young newly-bearing tree.

After this the boat was run down to the lagoon, and they continued their
journey refreshed and ready to send the little vessel rapidly through
the water.

The land trended more and more now to the west, but in front of their
course a long spit of rocks ran right out for a considerable distance,
and after scanning the shore carefully the captain concluded that if the
ship was anywhere it must be just beyond the point.

The state of the atmosphere made the distance deceptive, and the rocky
spit proved to be far nearer than had been anticipated. And here as
they drew close to see that the rock was of a blackish-brown it became
evident that unless they cared to row completely out to sea and then
back so as to double this point, where there would in all probability be
a tremendous current, they must now land and continue the journey on
foot.

The latter was decided upon and the gig run up on a beach whose sand was
of some sparkling black mineral, the grains all being of a good size and
tremendously heavy. The rocks towered above them and were extremely
craggy, but of a columnar, basaltic nature, which formed plenty of steps
for the climbers, who mounted some fifty feet and then were able to look
down into a perfectly-formed semicircular bay, the spit on which they
stood forming one side, a similar spit being on the other about a
hundred and fifty yards away, while the whole wore the aspect of a
volcanic crater, one sid