It's my opinion, doctor," said the captain in a low voice, "that this
is the last time you or I will ever be at sea, or anywhere else, if our
skipper don't look better after his men, for a more rascally crew I
never set eyes on, and, from a word or two I have heard dropped now and
then, I feel sure some mischief is in the wind. Come aft with me to a
place where we ain't so likely to be overheard by eavesdroppers, and
I'll tell you all about it."

Will Osten was so much astonished at his friend's remark, that he
followed him to the after part of the ship without uttering a word, and
there sat down on the taffrail to listen to what he had to communicate.

There was no moon in the clear sky, and the hosts of stars that studded
the dark vault overhead did not shed any appreciable light on the waters
of the Pacific, on which the _Rover_ floated almost motionless. That
beautiful and mysterious phosphorescence which sometimes illumines the
sea was gleaming in vivid flashes in the vessel's wake, and a glowing
trail of it appeared to follow the rudder like a serpent of lambent
fire.

It was one of those calm, peaceful nights in which God seems to draw
nearer than usual to the souls of His creatures. The only sounds that
broke the profound stillness were the pattering of reef-points on the
sails as the vessel rose and sank gently on the oily swell; the measured
tread of the officer of the watch, and the humming of the man at the
wheel, as he stood idly at his post, for the vessel had scarcely
steering-way.

"Doctor," said Captain Dall in a low whisper, taking Will Osten by the
button-hole and bending forward until his eyes were close to those of
his young friend, "I little thought when I set sail from England that,
in a few weeks after, my good ship the _Foam_ would come a wreck an'
sink to the bottom of the Pacific before my eyes. Still less did I
think that I should be cast on a coral island, have to fight like a
naked savage, and be saved at last by missionaries from being roasted
and eaten. Yet all this has happened within a few months."

At any other time Will Osten would have smiled at the solemn manner in
which this was said, but there was something in the hour, and also in
the tone of his friend's voice, which tended to repress levity and raise
a feeling of anxiety in his mind.

"Well, captain," he said, "what has this to do with the present evil
that you seem to apprehend?"

"To do with it, lad? nothing--'xc