was just about
sneaking over the side to explore the strange island and inspect more
closely the curious animals I had noticed, when Captain Snaggs saw me
from the poop and put the stopper on my little excursion.

"None o' y'r skulking my loblolly b'y!" he shouted out. "Jest ye lay
aloft an' send down the mizzen-royal. This air no time fur skylarkin'
an' jerymanderin'. We wants all hands at work."

With that, I had, instead of enjoying myself ashore as I had hoped, to
mount up the rigging and help the starboard watch in unbending the
sails, which, when they reached the deck, were rolled up by the other
watch on duty below, and lowered to the beach over the side, where they
were stowed in a heap on the sand above high-water mark.

The lighter spars were next sent down, and then the upper and lower
yards by the aid of strong purchases, all being similarly placed ashore,
with the ropes coiled up as they were loosed from their blocks and
fastenings aloft; so, by the time sunset came the ship was almost a
sheer hulk, only her masts and standing rigging remaining.

Poor old thing, she was utterly transformed, lying high and dry there,
with all her top hamper gone, and shorn of all her fair proportions!

I noticed this when I came down from aloft, the _Denver City_ looking so
queer from the deck, with her bare poles sticking up, like monuments
erected to her past greatness; but, although I was tired enough with all
the jobs I had been on, unreeling ropes, and knotting, and splicing, and
hauling, till I hardly knew whether I stood on my head or my heels, I
was not too tired to take advantage of the kind offer Hiram made me when
I went into the galley to help get the men's tea ready.

"Ye ken skip, Cholly, an' hev a lark ashore, ef ye hev a mind to," said
he; "I'll look arter the coppers."

Didn't I `skip,' that's all.

I was down the sides in a brace of shakes, and soon wandering at my own
sweet will about the beach, wondering at everything I saw--the lava bed
above the sand, the tall, many-armed cactus plants, with their fleshy
fingers and spikes at the ends, like long tenpenny nails, the giant
tortoises, which hissed like snakes as they waddled out of my path--
wondering, aye, wondering at everything!

Hearing the cooing of doves again, as I had done in the morning, I
followed the sound, and presently came to a small grove of trees on an
incline above the flat lava expanse, to the right of the head of the
little