ay with which they would search every nook and corner of the
island in a vain attempt to discover my dead body; for I felt assured
that if they did not see any sign of the pirate schooner or boat when
they came out of the cave to look for me, they would never imagine that
I had been carried away. I wondered, too, how Jack would succeed in
getting Peterkin out of the cave without my assistance; and I trembled
when I thought that he might lose presence of mind, and begin to kick
when he was in the tunnel! These thoughts were suddenly interrupted and
put to flight by a bright-red blaze, which lighted up the horizon to the
southward and cast a crimson glow far over the sea. This appearance was
accompanied by a low growling sound, as of distant thunder, and at the
same time the sky above us became black, while a hot, stifling wind blew
around us in fitful gusts.

The crew assembled hastily on deck, and most of them were under the
belief that a frightful hurricane was pending; but the captain, coming
on deck, soon explained the phenomena.

"It's only a volcano," said he. "I knew there was one hereabouts, but
thought it was extinct.--Up, there, and furl topgallant sails! We'll
likely have a breeze, and it's well to be ready."

As he spoke, a shower began to fall, which, we quickly observed, was not
rain, but fine ashes. As we were many miles distant from the volcano,
these must have been carried to us from it by the wind. As the captain
had predicted, a stiff breeze soon afterwards sprang up, under the
influence of which we speedily left the volcano far behind us; but
during the greater part of the night we could see its lurid glare and
hear its distant thunder. The shower did not cease to fall for several
hours, and we must have sailed under it for nearly forty miles--perhaps
farther. When we emerged from the cloud, our decks and every part of
the rigging were completely covered with a thick coat of ashes. I was
much interested in this, and recollected that Jack had often spoken of
many of the islands of the Pacific as being volcanoes, either active or
extinct, and had said that the whole region was more or less volcanic,
and that some scientific men were of opinion that the islands of the
Pacific were nothing more or less than the mountain-tops of a huge
continent which had sunk under the influence of volcanic agency.

Three days after passing the volcano, we found ourselves a few miles to
windward of an island