field-glasses in which he had
great faith, gazed from the deck. Tredgold was the first to speak.

"Are you sure this is the one, Brisket?" he inquired, carelessly.

"Certainly, sir," said the captain, in some surprise. "At least, it's
the one you told me to steer for."

"Don't look much like the map," said Stobell, in a low aside. "Where's
the mountain?"

Tredgold looked again. "I fancy it's a bit higher towards the middle,"
he said, after a prolonged inspection; "and, besides, it's 'mount,' not
'mountain.'"

Captain Brisket, who had with great delicacy drawn a little apart in
recognition of their whispers, stepped towards them again.

"I don't know that I've ever seen this particular island before," he
said, frankly; "likely not; but it's the one you told me to find.
There's over a couple of hundred of them, large and small, knocking
about. If you think you've made a mistake we might try some of the
others."

"No," said Tredgold, after a pause and a prolonged inspection; "this must
be right."

Mr. Chalk came down from aloft, his eyes shining with pure joy, and
joined them.

"How long before we're alongside?" he inquired.

"Two hours," replied the captain; "perhaps three," he added, considering.

Mr. Chalk glanced aloft and, after a knowing question or two as to the
wind, began in a low voice to converse with his friends. Mr. Tredgold's
misgivings as to the identity of the island he dismissed at once as
baseless. The mount satisfied him, and when, as they approached nearer,
discrepancies in shape between the island and the map were pointed out to
him he easily explained them by speaking of the difficulties of
cartography to an amateur.

"There's our point," he said, indicating it with a forefinger, which the
incensed Stobell at once struck down. "We couldn't have managed it
better so far as time is concerned. We'll sleep ashore tonight in the
tent and start the search at daybreak."

Captain Brisket approached the island cautiously. To the eyes of the
voyagers it seemed to change shape as they neared it, until finally, the
_Fair Emily_ anchoring off the reef which guarded it, it revealed itself
as a small island about three-quarters of a mile long and two or three
hundred yards wide. A beach of coral sand shelved steeply to the sea,
and a background of cocoa-nut trees and other vegetation completed a
picture on which Mr. Chalk gazed with the rapture of a devotee at a
shrine.

He went below