ply of food and drink, they might have looked forward to a long
voyage performed in this singular fashion: that is, provided the sea
around them should keep clear of storms and sharks.

Alas! the approach of one or the other of these perils was a contingency
to be looked for at any moment, and to be dreaded accordingly.

Just at that moment they were not thinking of either, nor even of the
probability of perishing by hunger or its kindred appetite,--thirst.
The singular coincidence that the chest should come floating that way,
just when they were on the point of perishing, had produced a remarkable
effect on the minds both of the sailor and the sea-cook, begetting not
positive conviction, but a pleasant presentiment that there might be
other and more permanent succour in store for them; and that, after all,
they were not destined to die by drowning,--at least not just then
Hope,--sweet, soothing hope!--had again sprung up in the bosom of both;
and, along with it the determination to make a further effort for the
saving of their lives. They could now exchange both speech and counsel
with perfect freedom; and they proceeded to discuss the situation.

The presence of the chest required explanation. The theory, which at
first sight of it had suggested itself to its owner (that the raft had
gone to pieces and that the kit was one of the scattered fragments) was
not tenable, nor was it entertained for a moment. There had been no
convulsion, either of winds or waves, to destroy the _Catamaran_; and
this curiously-fashioned fabric, in all its fantastic outlines, must
still be intact and afloat somewhere upon the surface of the sea.

It is true they could see nothing of it anywhere; neither could Lilly
Lalee, who, from her more elevated position, was instructed to survey
the circle of the horizon,--a duty which the child performed with the
greatest care.

If the craft had been anywhere within the distance of a league or two,
the large lateen sail should have been sufficiently conspicuous to have
caught the eye of the girl. But she saw it not. She saw nothing,--so
ran her report,--but the sea and sky.

From this it might have been inferred (even supposing the _Catamaran_ to
be still afloat) that it must have drifted to such a distance as to have
destroyed all chance of their ever overtaking it. But the sage seaman
did not give way to this form of reasoning. His conjectures were of a
more consolatory character,--founde