now they had only three men in the boat, and had enough food for many
days, rough as it was. In the latitude of Pitcairn, the island so
famous because to it fled the mutineers of the Bounty, they all but
perished. For two days a severe storm nearly overwhelmed them. The boat
was more buoyant, and with the sea-anchor trailing, they came through
the trial without injury. Steve said the lightning was "yoost like a
leedle bid of hell." It circled them about, hissed in the water, and
finally struck their mast repeatedly, so that the wise captain took
it down. The entire heavens were a mass of coruscating electricity,
and they could feel the air alive with it. They were shocked by
the very atmosphere, said Steve, and feared for their lives every
moment. The sea piled up, the wind blew a gale, and death was close
at hand. They wished they had not left Easter Island, and envied
those who had remained there.

But they rode it out, with their pile of blankets a-trail, and with
helm and oars alert to keep the boat afloat.

The gale amended after several days, and on the sixteenth day
from their departure they reached Mangareva. That island is in the
Gambier group, and a number of Europeans live there. The castaways
were received generously, and were informed that a schooner was
expected in a fortnight, which might carry them to some port on
their way home. But the old man said they must push on. He had to
report to his owners the loss of the El Dorado; he had to see his
family. They had come twenty-six hundred miles since deserting the
schooner, and the thousand miles more to Tahiti was not a serious
undertaking. He persuaded Steve and Alex to his manner of thinking,
and with the boat stocked with provisions they took the wave again,
after a couple of days at Mangareva.