d in
cutting out the canvas, some of which had been kept in store, the rest
being, taken for the roofs of the huts.

Although so much of the cliff had fallen down as to half fill the
harbour, the point on which the flag-staff stood remained intact.
Charley Roy was stationed there with a party of men, who kept a look-out
around the horizon from sunrise to sunset. They were relieved at night
by another party under the third lieutenant, who was directed to burn
blue-lights and let off rockets at intervals, in case any ship should be
passing.

Night brought no cessation to the toils of the crew. Torches were
formed, and fresh hands laboured away at the rafts. Several times as
they were thus toiling, the ground below them shook more or less
violently.

"Stop a bit, an' we'll be afther gittin' off you," cried Pat Casey, who
was always ready with a joke to cheer up his companions. "Jist keep
quiet, me darlin', for a few hours longer, an' you an' me will part
company, whin ye can trimble as much as ye like."

Whether or not the volcano would accede to his request seemed very
doubtful. Towards morning the commotions increased, crash succeeded
crash, and they could perceive that other portions of the cliff had
given way, while there was some fear that the rafts would be swamped by
the sea which the falling masses created, before they could get out of
the harbour. Strange to say, in spite of the fearful danger in which
they were placed, the men joked as much as ever, though they worked away
in a manner which showed that they were fully conscious of the necessity
of speed, the officers labouring with them as hard as any one. At the
sound of the boatswain's call they scampered off to breakfast, which
they bolted in a few minutes, and soon came back to their work.

The weather now became finer than it had been since they had landed on
the island many months before. The sky was clear and the air pure, and
there was not an invalid among them.

The sixth raft had just been completed, and the men were working it down
to the water, when a rumbling sound far louder than any thunder was
heard. The tall cliffs appeared as if about to fall down and fill up
the whole of the harbour, the mouth evidently of an ancient crater. The
rocks were seen to lift and heave; Adair stood on the shore,
superintending the launching of the raft, apparently as cool and unmoved
as ever.

"Now, my lads, get the boats into the water," he exclaim