.

Nevertheless, we persevered; and before night we had nearly completed
the frame of our building, with the exception of the ridge-pole, the
rafters, and cross-pieces.

The posts at the sides stood six feet out of the ground, and were
stationed about three feet apart. The centre-posts, to support the
ridge-pole, were nine feet high, and made from the trunks of well-grown
trees, some six inches in diameter. This certainly was a good day's
work under the circumstances; at any rate, we were quite unanimous in
considering it so; and towards twilight we went down to the beach for
our evening bath, in an exceedingly complacent and self-satisfied state
of mind, Max enlarging upon the pleasures of industry, and professing to
be in the present enjoyment of those feelings--

"Which follow arduous duty well performed."

Instead of repairing to our usual bathing-place, we proceeded along the
beach to the north-west, until we reached the clump of trees at the edge
of the water, already mentioned as being visible from Castle-hill. As
we approached the spot, we found that what had appeared at a distance to
be but a single group of trees, was, in fact, a small grove extending
along the shore, and fringing a little cove of nearly elliptical form,
which at this point set into the land. The narrow, shelving beach,
rivalled the whiteness of a fresh snow-drift. The trees were mostly
cocoa-palms; indeed, scarcely any others could flourish in such a spot;
and there were no shrubs or undergrowth of any kind. The cove was
perhaps a hundred paces long, and half as wide in the widest part;
contracting to less than fifty feet where it communicated with the
lagoon. The water was clear, the bottom smooth and regularly formed,
and the greatest depth was only eight or ten feet. Max, after viewing
the cove with the eye of a connoisseur, pronounced it a noble spot for
bathing purposes, and fully equal to the basin on the reef in every
respect, except in depth and facilities for diving.

The impression of his morning's adventure, however, was still fresh, and
he hinted at the possibility that some shark of elegant tastes, and
possessing an eye for the beautiful, might be in the habit of
frequenting the cove. Arthur volunteered to keep watch at the narrow
entrance, while the rest of us were bathing, in order to give timely
notice of the approach of the dreaded enemy; but on walking out to the
edge of the lagoon we found that this precauti