we were glad to go down on the beach for a change. All at once I saw
the boys come up the stream in their boat, at a great speed, and the
way they used their sculls led me to think that all was not right.

"What have you seen, that should thus put two brave youths to flight?"
said I.

Then they told me what had brought them back so soon. I had heard the
sound of the two guns which they had fired off, but no more. I told
them I thought their ears must be at fault, and that the sounds they
had heard were no more than those of their own guns, which the hills
had sent back through the air. This view of the case did not at all
please them, as by this time they well knew what sounds their guns made.

"It will be a strange thing," said I, "if the hope to which I have so
long clung should at last come to be a fact; but we must have a care
that we do not hail a ship the crew of which may rob and kill us for
the sake of our wealth. I feel that we have as much cause to dread a
foe as we have grounds of hope that we may meet with friends."

Our first course was to make the cave quite safe, and then to mount
guard where we could see a ship if one should come near the coast. That
night the rain came down in a flood, and a storm broke over us, and we
were thus kept in doors for two days and two nights.

On the third day I set out with Jack to Shark Isle, with a view to seek
for the strange ship which he said he knew must be in some place not
far from the coast. I went to the top of a high rock, but though my eye
swept the sea for miles round, I could see no signs of a sail. I then
made Jack fire three more shots, to try if they would give the same