he cried angrily, as the men sprang up together.
"We must not capsize the boat here. Now you, my man," he continued,
sitting fast, as the sailor stepped across and took the mate's place
before Mr Gregory rose. "Now you, Widgeon."

Billy crept very softly into the captain's place, and the latter seated
himself on the thwart in front of Mark, to be joined directly by
Gregory.

"There," cried Mark, as the oars dipped, "I heard it. There."

"What?" said his father.

"That roaring which Mr Gregory heard."

"It was the creaking and groaning of the oars in the tholes."

"No, no, father. It was that deep savage roar heard ever so far off."

They ceased rowing again and again, but the sound was heard no more, and
the captain began to talk rather anxiously to Mr Gregory as the sun
grew low in the west, and it became evident that they had a long way yet
to row.

"Tired, Mark?" cried the captain.

"No, father," he replied, laughing; "but if you'll say hungry, I'll tell
you: Yes, very."

"Ah, well, I keep hoping that every headland we pass may bring us in
sight of the camp! It cannot be very far now."

"But suppose it isn't an island," said Mark; "we might be rowing right
away."

"Come, come," cried the captain cheerily; "you the son of a navigator,
and talking like this. Now, then, which way did we row when we
started?"

"North-east," said Mark.

"And then?"

"North."

"Yes, go on."

"Then I think we went north-west."

"Well, and after that?"

"West, father."

"Then as we ran from the shark we went south, didn't we?"

"I don't know," said Mark. "I was too intent on the way in which they
were tearing him to pieces."

"Well, you might have said you were too frightened to notice," said the
captain, smiling. "You need not have been ashamed. But come now, which
way are we going now?"

"Away from the sun," replied Mark, who felt no inclination to show that
he had felt too much alarmed to take any notice of the direction they
rowed. "I suppose we must be going east."

"Well, then, if you started by going east, and kept on rowing till you
are going east again, I think you may conclude that you have gone nearly
round a piece of land, and that the said piece is an island. It might
not be, for we may be going right into some gulf; but this place looks
as much like an island as is possible, and I don't think it can be
anything else."

"Island," said Gregory, gruffly, "volcanic, and the coral has r