and will hold it against all the world. Begone with you, or we will
sink you, and your ship to the bottom; off, off."

As they were uttering these words, they continued making the most
violent gestures of defiance and contempt, but this did not prevent
Linton from approaching the rock. It was larger than it had appeared to
be at a distance; and at the spot to which he was making there was a
little indentation where the water was comparatively smooth. I have
said that there was a group of men in front of a tent, at the higher
part of the rock, and these they now observed, were armed, and had
thrown up a sort of fortification, with planks and chests, and spars,
and other things cast on shore from the wreck, aided by the natural
inequality of that part of the rock.

"Good Heavens!" thought Linton. "And on so small a spot of ground,
could not these men rest at peace with each other?"

Just as the dinghy was within two boat-hooks' length of the rock, a
voice from among the group, hailed in English,--"Take care, sir, or
those fellows will murder you all. They have been threatening to do it.
But if we could but get up a few drops of water here, we should soon be
able to quiet them."

"I have the water for you, and I will try what I can do to pacify them,"
shouted Linton, at the top of his voice. "_A present, mes amis_" he
said in French; "we have come here as friends to aid you; we do not want
to take your island, to which you are welcome; and to convince you that
we do not come as enemies, any two of you can go off to the large boat
there, where they may have as much food and water as they require."

Two of them rather more sane than the rest, on hearing this, shouted
out,--"Food and water, that is what we want--you are friends, we see--we
will go."

"No, no--if any go, all shall go!" exclaimed the rest, rushing down to
the water; but, so blind was the eagerness of the mass that these were
precipitated headlong into the sea, and would have become food for the
ground sharks had not Linton and his companions hauled them into the
dinghy. He was now afraid that he should be obliged to return at some
risk with the boat thus heavily laden, but before doing so he determined
to make one more attempt to join the people on the top. His first care,
before letting the boat again drop in, was to pour a few drops of
brandy-and-water down the throats of the two Frenchmen they had rescued.
This so revived them, and with their i