y. A light air had sprung
up, and the vessel, aided by the boats, made good progress towards our
brigantine, despite the logs towing astern.

Our new friend asked me if I would mind coming below with him, as it was
past three o'clock, and quite time we had something to eat and drink.

The cabin certainly was small, but was spotlessly clean, and exceedingly
well furnished. It contained three bunks, two of which were hidden from
view by neat cretonne curtains.

"That was my poor young mate's bunk," he said sadly, "and the other was
the boatswain's. Now, will you please pass these up on deck?"

From a locker he took out a dozen or more of ale, two bottles of
spirits, and a number of tins of beef, sardines, etc., together with
an ample supply of biscuit. These I passed up to Guest, who, at Yorke's
request, ordered the boats alongside, so that the crews could get some
dinner, and a stiff glass of grog all round. Then we ourselves ate a
most hearty meal, rendered the more enjoyable by the deliciously cool
beer--a liquor which, until that day, we had not tasted for quite
four or five months. As soon as we had finished, I asked him to let me
examine his hand.

"Can you do a bit of cutting?" he asked, as I began to remove the
bandages.

"Rather," answered Guest for me, "Drake loves to dig out a bullet,
especially--doesn't he, Napoleon?"

Napoleon was one of our native crew--a short, nuggety little Tongan,
who, in an attack made on our boats nearly a year before, had received a
bullet in the calf of the leg. I had succeeded in extracting it without
unduly mutilating the patient, for I had once acted as amateur assistant
to a medical missionary in Samoa, and had seen a good many bullets
extracted during a very lively six months' native war.

When I saw the condition of Yorke's hand, I was startled. It was
enormously swollen from the tips of the fingers to the wrist, and badly
lacerated and bruised all over the back, and presented a very dangerous
appearance. The pain he had endured, and was enduring at the moment,
must have been something atrocious, and I felt a sudden respect and
admiration for a man who could attend to _our_ wants before thinking of
himself.

"Good heavens!" said Guest sympathisingly, "how did it happen?"

He told us that ten days previously the cutter had struck on a reef in
the night. She bumped heavily three or four times, but would have worked
across the reef without serious damage, as there was