impossible--Most resourceful man I ever knew. He must have won ashore
with the others. And the women--a British captain! It must be we'll
find crew and all safe!"

"Not on this coast," replied Meggs. "They'd have lost most their boats
before the _Impala_ struck."

"In that event--Deuce take it! will we never get there? If I had my
motor-boat now! By Jove, this stretch here between the headlands is
not swamp. It's dry plain--and black. Been burnt over. There's a
place--tree-trunks still smouldering. The grass has been fired within
the last day or two."

"No one in sight as yet, on the cliffs," said the skipper, who had
continued to scrutinize the northern headland. "No watch above; no
sign of any one or any camp below. Must all be around on the far side.
We'll clear the point, and run in through the first break in the
reefs."

"If they fail to show up on this side," qualified Lord James, slowly
sweeping the cliffs from foot to crest and inland along the dry fire-
blackened plain.

About half a mile from the beach the wall of rock was cleft by a
wooded ravine that ran up through the cliff ridge. At its foot was a
grove of trees whose bright green foliage seemed to indicate an
abundance of water. Above, a gigantic baobab tree towered out of the
cleft and upreared its enormous cabbage-shaped crown high over the
crest of the ridge.