ith
all speed. The night was dark, but there was light sufficient to enable
them to see their way. As they drew near they came within the influence
of the enormous breakers, which rose like long gigantic snakes and
rolled in the form of perpendicular walls to the reef, where they fell
with a thunderous roar in a flood of milky foam.

Here it was necessary to exercise the utmost caution in steering, for if
the boat had turned broadside on to one of these monstrous waves, it
would have been rolled over and over like a cask.

"Pull gently, lads," said the captain, as they began to get within the
influence of the breakers. "I don't quite see my way yet. When I give
the word, pull with a will till I tell ye to hold on. Your lives depend
on it."

This caution was necessary, for when a boat is fairly within the grasp
of what we may term a shore-going wave, the only chance of safety lies
in going quite as fast as it, if not faster. Presently the captain gave
the word; the men bent to their oars and away they rushed on the crest
of a billow, which launched them through the opening in the reef in the
midst of a turmoil of seething foam. Next moment they were rowing
quietly over the calm lagoon, and approaching what appeared to be a
low-lying island covered with cocoa-nut trees; but the light rendered it
difficult to distinguish objects clearly. A few minutes later the
boat's keel grated on the sand, and the whole party leaped on shore.

The first impulse of some of the men was to cheer, but the feelings of
others were too deep for expression in this way.

"Thanks be to God!" murmured Captain Dall as he landed.

"Amen!" said Will Osten earnestly.

Some of the men shook hands, and congratulated each other on their
escape from what all had expected would prove to be a terrible death.

As for Larry O'Hale, he fell on his knees, and, with characteristic
enthusiasm, kissed the ground.

"My best blissin's on ye," said he with emotion. "Och, whither ye be a
coral island or a granite wan no matter; good luck to the insict that
made ye, is the prayer of Larry O'Hale!"

CHAPTER SEVEN.

HOPES, FEARS, AND PROSPECTS ON THE CORAL ISLAND.

Few conditions of life are more difficult to bear than that which is
described in the proverb, "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." Day
after day, week after week passed by, and every morning the unfortunate
men who had been cast on the coral island rose with revived hope to
spen