e Dutch flag, one we had found in the locker of the boat.

"Day after day I looked out for a sail, but none appeared, and I began
to think that I was doomed to spend the remainder of my life on this
desert spot. At last our clothes wore out. To replace them I prepared
some goat-skins, and we rigged ourselves out in the strange costume in
which Green discovered me. I had often when a boy fancied that it would
be very pleasant to live on an island by myself, or with one companion;
but faith! I found the reality very different, and I would gladly have
given up my title and estates to escape. `It is an ill wind that blows
no one good.' I can assure you that my heart leaped into my mouth when
I saw the _Empress_ approaching, not dreaming at the time of the
dangerous condition to which she had been reduced. I own, however, that
I shall be very glad to see her safe inside the harbour."

After some hours, the gale having moderated, the _Empress_ again stood
back to the mouth of the harbour, and came to an anchor as close in as
Adair thought it safe to go. A boat now came off, with a sufficient
supply of coal to enable her to cross the bar. Adair began to fear that
it would be impossible to wait for the spring tide, as the leaks had
again begun to gain on the pumps in spite of the efforts of the crew to
keep the water under. The larger the quantity of water which got into
the ship, the lower she would be, and the less able to cross. As the
surf had considerably gone down, the boats were again employed from
morning until night in landing stores. But every time they returned
loaded over the bar, they ran a considerable risk of being swamped.

Adair was seated in his cabin, the day's work being over, with his
nephew, when the carpenter desired to speak with him.

"The men have been doing their best, and I have done my best; but it is
my opinion and my duty to express it: the ship won't swim four and
twenty hours longer," said Mr Gimlet. "All hands are ready to work on
at the pumps and with the buckets until we drop, but the water is
rushing in faster than we can pump it out, and should it come on to blow
again, no human power can keep the ship afloat."

Adair was not offended at the freedom with which the warrant officer
spoke.

"You and all the hands have done your very best, Mr Gimlet," he
answered. "We must manage to keep the ship from going down to-night,
and to-morrow morning, at the top of high tide, we wil