yed his orders; "it would
ha' been juist the thing for such a wetting as you got with your joomp.
Mr Poole, will ye come here too? I got one little tin with enough for
you and Mr Poole, and a big one for the lads and mysen. But I'm vairy
sorry to say I forgot the saut."

"He needn't have troubled himself about the salt," said Poole softly.
"I should never have missed it. You and I have taken in enough to-night
through our pores."

"Yes," said Fitz.--"Splendid, Andy."

"Ah," said the Camel; "I never haud wi' going upon a journey, however
short, wi'out something in the way of food."

CHAPTER FIFTY TWO.

FITZ'S CONSCIENCE PRICKS.

Daybreak brought a blank look of amazement into the lads' countenances.
The soft, sweet, bracing air of morning floated from the glorious shore,
all cliff and indentation looking of a pearly grey, almost the same tint
as the surf that curled over upon the rocks distant about two miles.

A mere glance was directed at the dangerous coast, for every eye was
turned seaward, east, north, and south, in search of the gunboat; but
she was not to be seen.

"Surely she's not gone down!" cried Fitz.

"Oh, hardly," said Poole; "but it's very puzzling. What do you make of
it, Butters?"

"Well, sir," said the boatswain, "I'm thinking that like enough she's
got upon a rock and stuck fast, while the sharp current has carried us
along miles and miles, and quite out of sight."

"But they may have got the screw all right, and gone straight out to
sea."

"Nay, sir. Not in the dark. We got them fans too fast; and besides, I
don't see no smoke on the sea-line. The steamer leaves a mark that you
can see her by many miles away. No, sir, I think I'm right; it's us as
has drifted."

"Which way?" said Poole. "North or south?"

"Can't say yet, sir. May be either. South," he added emphatically the
next moment.

"How do you know?" cried Fitz.

The boatswain smiled.

"By the colour of the sea, sir," replied the man, screwing up his eyes.
"Look at the water. It isn't bright and clear. It's got the mark of
the river in it. Not much, but just enough to show that the current
hugs the shore, bringing the river water with it; and there it all is
plain enough. Look at them little rocks just showing above the surface.
You watch them a minute, and you'll see we are floating by southward,
and we may think ourselves precious lucky that we haven't run upon any
of them in the night and been capsiz