D RIP SAVED BY SNARLEY--THEIR
LIFE ON THE ISLAND--WATER FOUND--GOAT'S FLESH--THE EMPRESS SEEN
APPROACHING THE ISLAND--PREPARATIONS FOR CROSSING THE BAR--AWFUL
SUSPENSE--SHIP STEAMS ON--STRIKES WITH A CRASH ON THE BAR--MORE STORES
LANDED--THE JOLLIES ALARMED BY A JET OF STEAM--SAILS SEEN IN THE
DISTANCE.

"By-the-by, I never told you how I came to be playing Robinson Crusoe
and his man Friday on yonder barren rock," observed Saint Maur, as he
and his uncle paced together the deck of the _Empress_.

"You remember the night I was hooked off the yacht by a stranger which
ran us down, and, as I thought, sent you to the bottom. I leave you to
judge in what a state of fear and anxiety I was left. From the way the
fellows talked when I got on board, I discovered that they were
Dutchmen. I rushed aft to the skipper and entreated him to heave to and
lower his boats to try and pick up any of you who might be floating, but
he either did not understand me or would not. When I ran to the helm,
intending to put it down, that he might the better comprehend my
meaning, he and his mates held me back. I pitched into one fellow and
knocked him over, and was about to treat the other in the same way, when
the skipper with his big fist hit me a blow on the head which brought me
to the deck.

"When I came to my senses it was broad daylight, and I knew that long
before that time, if the yacht had gone down, you must all of you have
lost your lives. I believe the Dutchman intended to apologise for
having treated me in so unceremonious a fashion, but, as I could not
understand a word he said, I am not sure. He behaved, however,
afterwards, far better than I should have expected from the way our
acquaintance had commenced. I was never a very good hand at picking up
languages, so that it was some time before I could make myself even
imperfectly understood by any one on board. Strange to say, not a man
among them spoke a word of English. I wanted the skipper to put into
some port, but he replied that, `Out of his course he would not go for
me or any man.' I then begged him, chiefly by signs, that should we
fall in with a homeward-bound ship, to put me on board of her. He
nodded his head and let me understand that, providing it was during calm
weather, he should have no objection, and advised me meanwhile to
console myself with his schiedam, of which he had a plentiful supply.
Both he and his mates indulged in it pretty largely, I foun