first blow, and there may be several others
before the weather becomes settled."

"What! Do you think the ship's not coming back for us?" asked Billy, in
an anxious tone. "I should like to change my clothes, and I wish we had
some tea and sugar, and some hard tack, and pepper, mustard, and all
sorts of things."

"As to the ship's coming back, it's possible she may not," observed Tom.
"If she does not, we must manage to do without the things we should
like to have, and make the best of those we have got."

"That's the right sort of philosophy," observed Jerry Bird, who knew
that he might take a liberty which another man might not, and talk
freely to his officers.

As soon as breakfast was over, the oars and gear of the boat were
carried down to the beach, when, with the help of rollers, she was, all
hands hauling together, after some labour, run into the water.

As Tom had feared might be the case, it was soon discovered that, either
from the hot atmosphere or the pressure to which she had been subjected,
she leaked considerably. The leaks, however, it was hoped, would
partially fill up, though she would require some fresh caulking, and a
coat of tar, or some substitute, if tar was not to be procured. The
hour of noon approached, and, in spite of the heat, Tom and Desmond
climbed to the flag-staff. They looked around the horizon, and then at
each other.

"I am afraid she will not come at all," exclaimed Desmond.

"I feared as much from the first," answered Tom.

"Then what do you propose doing?" asked Desmond. "I don't wish to have
to live on here month after month, or for what we can tell year after
year, while our fellows are fighting the Chinese, and all the rest of
the world, perhaps."

"No, nor do I," said Tom. "We must fit our boat as well as we can for
sea, and try and make our way, either back to Japan, or to the Ladrones,
to which we were bound; but, as I said before, it won't do to put to sea
until the hurricane season is over. Even in fine weather it will be a
pretty long trip in an open boat; but people have gone as far, or much
farther, and what others have done we can do."

"I am ready for anything you think best," answered Desmond, "and I am
sure the rest will be, but we must try and fit the boat for a long
voyage, and the sooner we set about it the better."

"It will be a difficult job to do that without tools," observed Tom.

"Faith, I forgot that," remarked Desmond. "Still, as you