steer for the island, coxswain."

The first cutter ran up to the rocky island, and as soon as the bow
touched the rocks, De Forrest leaped into the fore-sheets. He was
nervous and excited, feeling, perhaps, that he had failed in his duty,
and was, therefore, responsible for the accident to the second cutter.
From feeling that he had circumvented his crew in carrying out some
unexplained trick, he realized that he had led them into a trap, from
which they had narrowly escaped with their lives.

"What are you doing on this island, De Forrest?" asked Norwood, as the
discomfited officer took his place in the stern-sheets, and the boat
shoved off again.

The second lieutenant declared that he had come over to the island to
prevent his crew from running away, or from carrying out some trick
whose existence he suspected, but whose nature he could not
comprehend.

"Sanford wanted I should go ashore at the town, and offered to look
out for the crew while I did so," he continued. "Of course I wouldn't
leave my crew; but I told them that half of them might go on shore and
take a walk. None of them wanted to go, and then I was satisfied they
were up to something. I went on the island for the sole purpose of
watching them. I wanted to know what their plan was."

"Well, what did you discover?"

"Nothing at all. I saw that steamer coming, and I ordered Sanford to
shove off, so that her swash should not damage the boat."

"I don't believe they intended to play any trick," added Norwood. "You
are too suspicious, De Forrest."

"Perhaps I am; but fellows that have been at sea for a month are
rather glad of a chance to stretch their legs on shore. They wouldn't
do so, when I told them they might; and I don't believe such a thing
was ever heard of before. Besides, they all looked as though they were
up to something, and just as though they had a big secret in their
heads."

"Perhaps you were right, but I don't believe you were," said Norwood,
too bluntly for good manners, and too bluntly for the harmony of the
officers' mess.

"I suppose I am responsible for the smashing of the second cutter, but
I was trying to do my duty," replied De Forrest, vexed at the implied
censure of his superior.

"If you had staid at the pier this could not have happened."

"But something else might have happened; and if my crew had run away,
I should have been blamed just as much," growled the second
lieutenant.

"You were too sharp for your o