oon as the light enabled him to see his
way up the hill. He waited, gazing anxiously at the horizon, while the
ruddy glow which suffused itself over the sky, announced the rising of
the sun. But no sail appeared. "She will not come at all," he
exclaimed to himself; "she must have been driven on the rocks during
that fearful night, and probably all hands have perished. Poor Archie,
I wish he had come with us, and I am very, very sorry for all the rest."

Tom, however, well knew that he must not give way to his melancholy
forebodings, and that, at all events, it was his duty to try and keep up
the spirits of his companions. On returning to the tent he put on as
unconcerned a countenance as possible, and sat down to breakfast as if
he had nothing on his mind. The high flavour of the pork showed him
that they must, in the first place, look out for another hog, and some
means must be found for preserving it. Pat asserted that the hams were
still very good, and Tom suggested that they should be immediately
smoked, until salt could be scraped from the rocks, or obtained by
evaporation. "You see we have got plenty to do, and even if we spend a
month here, we shall have no time to be idle," he observed.

Jerry and Tim, before they recommenced digging, cut with their axes a
number of rollers, which were then placed under the boat's keel, when
with renewed ardour all hands set to work to clear away the intervening
sand. It took, however, much longer than they had expected, and another
day was drawing to a close before they could attempt to begin launching
her. She was moved, however, but a few feet cut of the hollow in which
she had been imbedded, as there was no object to be gained that night by
putting her in the water, although the bay was now so smooth that she
might have floated in perfect safety.

Tom made his usual visit to Flag-staff Hill, and came back with the same
report as on the previous evening.

"Before we launch our boat," he said, when he rejoined the party at
breakfast, "we must dismantle our tent; and indeed it is not wise to
wear out our sail by using it as a roof. We may want it, and we shall
certainly require the oars. I therefore propose, should the ship not
appear by noon, to build a hut in the place of the tent, and we shall
then have shelter, should we require it, at night. We cannot tell what
we may need. The hurricane season is not yet over, we may depend upon
that. We came in for the