We will hope for the best," answered Tom; "and now we will go down and
see how the boat has fared. I am somewhat anxious about her, though I
don't see how we could have secured her better than we did."

The descent was nearly as difficult as the climb up the hill, and they
ran a great risk, when leaping from rock to rock, of slipping off and
tumbling a dozen or more feet at a time down to the next level. They
had nearly reached the bottom, when they saw Billy Blueblazes and Jerry
Bird looking up towards them. The countenances of both wore an aspect
of dismay.

"What has happened?" asked Tom.

"The boat has gone!" answered Billy; "we can't see her anywhere, not
even a bit of her wreck."

"Faith! that's bad news," exclaimed Desmond; "but did you look
everywhere? for, remember, everywhere means a good wide space."

"No, we did not go right up to the spot, for there was no use in doing
that," answered Billy.

"Then we will, and perhaps we may discover some signs which may indicate
the direction in which she has been driven," said Tom.

They accordingly set off. Tom observed what Billy had failed to do,
that the shape of the beach was greatly altered, the wind having driven
the sand far higher up than usual, so that in some parts it had risen to
the height of the bank on which grass and shrubs grew. Indeed, a
portion of the grassy ground had itself been covered up by the sand.

"What shall we do without the boat?" cried Billy; "we shall have to
spend our lives here, I suppose, if the ship has been lost, and the men
say that they think she had very little chance of escaping."

"I hope they are wrong in their conjectures," answered Tom; "and as for
the boat, I am not quite so certain that she is lost, although we may
have some trouble in finding her."

On arriving at that part of the beach where the boat had been left, Tom
looked round in every direction, and examined carefully the bushes and
herbage along the edge of the beach.

"If she was driven in this direction, she would have broken some of
these bushes, but they do not appear to have been injured," he observed.
"Now, let us see whereabouts she lay. Do you think you can tell,
Bird?" The seaman examined the ground.

"I remember coming through just such a clump of bushes as these,
directly after I left her; and look there, sir, there is her rudder and
a stretcher," and he enumerated other articles belonging to the boat.
Then stepping back, he said, "I'