hopeful. They were well housed, none were sick, they were all together
once more, and even the threatened danger from the convicts did not
cause them great uneasiness. They felt confident of their ability now
to keep the outlaws at bay until help arrived.

But their content was not to last long, for soon, harsh, and menacing
in its nearness, rang out the tolling of the bell.

The captain, brave as the bravest in most any kind of danger, turned a
sickly white and sunk to his knees in prayer, while Chris, trembling in
every limb, buried his face in the blanket to shut out the awful sounds.

"Come, Walt," whispered Charley, and the two boys stole out into the
darkness of the night. A few steps brought them to the chapel, and
pistols in hand they circled around it in opposite directions, but
their eager eyes caught no sight of moving forms.

"It must be on the inside," declared Charley, as they met near the
door. "Let's go in and see."

It took all their courage to venture into that dim, mysterious
interior, but the boys never hesitated, but stepped boldly in. Back
and forth they paced the grim interior, searching every nook and
corner, and found nothing. Not even a sound fell on their strained
hearing, save only the strong, steady tolling above their heads.

Charley stood under the little tower and gazed longingly up into its
darkness where the bell, under some mysterious power, swayed steadily
to and fro.

"I wish I could get up there, I'd tie the thing down," he declared.
"If this keeps up, we will have our hands full to keep Chris and the
captain on the island."

"Come away, Charley," said Walter, nervously, "this thing is getting
positively uncanny. I declare I am beginning to feel a sympathy for
Chris' terrors."

The two lads retraced their steps to the hut where they found the
captain, in spite of his superstitious fears, preparing to sally out in
search of them.

For long the two boys sat trying to argue the captain and Chris out of
their superstitious fears. They might as well have tried to argue
against fate itself.

"Aye, lads," the captain would say in reply to their logic, "I know
spirits seem against reason to shore-staying folks, but sailors know
better. Now there was Tom Bowling who took to hearing bells during his
watch on deck, an' not two days later, poor old Tom was missing."

"Went crazy and jumped over-board," muttered Charley, but the captain
shook his head with the air of a ma