ked off toward the sea, he called back:

"Yes, yonder they are! We are not left alone."

"But it's good to have company!" laughed Tim, "it won't be long before
some vessel will step in and lift us aboard."

"How odd they look!" remarked Elwood, as his friends clambered up beside
him. "They don't seem dressed in their usual fashion."

The Irishman, upon rising to his feet on top of the rock, uttered an
expression of surprise, looked intently toward the sea, and then quickly
sprung back again.

"Off of there quick!" he commanded in a hoarse whisper, at the same time
catching the shoulder of the up-climbing Howard and forcing him back
again.

"Why, what's the matter?" asked Elwood, a vague alarm taking possession
of him, as he rather hurriedly obeyed him.

"May the good Lord presarve us! _them are Injuns!_"

[Illustration: "'May the good Lord preserve us! them are Injuns,' said
Tim."]

"I thought they looked odd," said Elwood, "but I did not think of that.
Are they friendly?"

"Friendly!" repeated Tim, with an expression of intense disgust. "Do you
know what they are walking up and down the sand fur in that sassy
shtyle?"

"Plunder, I suppose."

"Yis; they are in hopes the saa may wash up some poor fellow that they
may have the pleasure of hacking him to pieces."

"Are they such terrible creatures. Perhaps they have slain those who
escaped from the steamer."

"Niver a fear; there was too many of 'em, as me brother used to say when
his wife tuk her broomstick at him."

"But they had no weapons to use."

Tim shook his head. He evidently had a small opinion of the courage of
the California aborigines.

"Had they massacred the survivors, we could see their bodies along
shore," remarked Howard. "The sun throws such a glare upon the sand that
we can detect a very small object."

This settled the matter in the mind of Elwood, who had been heartsick at
the great fear of such a fate having befallen his friends.

"Then the burning of the steamer has attracted the notice of a great
many vessels, and I think Mr. Yard was right when he was sure of being
taken off by some one."

"What a mistake we made in wandering away and going to sleep where no
one could find us!"

"We did, indeed, Elwood; we voluntarily banished ourselves."

"But Mr. Yard certainly knows we are here, and will he not get a company
of men to come after us?"

"Perhaps so; but, if he doesn't, your father and mine will certainly do
so, so