of the
feeble light from the nearly extinguished fire, and peer earnestly into
the darkness on every side, going all round the circle, and making the
same careful inspection outwards in every direction; and, lastly, he
walked down towards the beach far enough to satisfy himself that the
boats (which we could just discern) were all right; when he returned,
flung more wood on the fire, and then sat down close to windward of it,
out of the way of the smoke, filled his pipe, and lighted it. Of course
we took very good care to conceal ourselves effectually whilst this
patrol of the camp was being made, and I embraced the opportunity to
point out to Bob that all the boats seemed to be anchored at a few
yards' distance from the beach, excepting a small punt, and she was
drawn a foot or two up on the sand.

The fire now began to blaze up brightly, and I thought this a favourable
moment to proceed; for, whilst it afforded us a sufficiency of light to
enable us to avoid such obstacles as roots of trees and twigs and
branches of shrubs, it would dazzle the eyes of the lonely watcher, and
effectually prevent his seeing anything beyond a few yards distant.

I accordingly pulled Bob's sleeve to attract his attention, and,
pointing to the punt, intimated to him that she must be our first object
of attack.

We now both rose to our feet once more, and, stealing as rapidly forward
as we could, taking advantage of every little bit of cover that offered
to pause and reconnoitre for a moment, reached, after about twenty
minutes of breathless suspense, the half-stranded punt. To our infinite
chagrin, there were no oars in her, and without these we could do
nothing.

We now commenced a hurried consultation in cautious whispers as to what
had better be done, keeping a wary eye upon the sleeping camp and its
solitary watcher all the while. Whilst we were doing this, I suddenly
caught sight of a pair of short oars, which I knew in a moment must
belong to the punt, reared against a tree in the very midst of the
bivouac, and in the full light of the now brilliant fire, and within
view of the watching seaman.

I saw it was absolutely necessary that we should have those oars, so I
pointed them out to Bob, and directed him to remain _perdu_, whilst I
made an attempt to secure them.

I then set off down the beach until I was far enough away to be able to
walk across the open and into the shadow of the bush without being seen,
which I succe