where great white combers struck upon a reef and spouted into the
air. Behind us was a cliff, apparently of rock but covered with
earth and vegetation, and against this cliff, in which the prow
of the ship was buried, she, or what remained of her, had come to
anchor for the last time.

"You see what has happened," I said. "A great tidal wave has
carried us up here and retreated."

"That's it," exclaimed Bickley. "Look at the debris," and he
pointed to torn-up palms, bushes and seaweed piled into heaps
which still ran salt water; also to a number of dead fish that
lay about among them, adding, "Well, we are saved anyhow."

"And yet there are people like you who say that there is no
Providence!" ejaculated Bastin.

"I wonder what the views of Captain Astley and the crew are, or
rather were, upon that matter," interrupted Bickley.

"I don't know," answered Bastin, looking about him vaguely. "It
is true that I can't see any of them, but if they are drowned no
doubt it is because their period of usefulness in this world had
ended."

"Let's get down and look about us," I remarked, being anxious
to avoid further argument.

So we scrambled from the remnant of the ship, like Noah
descending out of the ark, as Bastin said, on to the beach