"Oh, we have one howitzer, and small-arms for the men, and we will have
to get along the best way we can with these; but the owners ought never
to send us here without a better equipment."

"I suppose they think it would cost too much."

"Yes; that's it. They think only about the profits, and trust to luck
for our safety. Well, I only hope we'll get safely out of this place--
that's all."

And the captain walked off much more excited than usual.

They drifted on through days of calm, which were succeeded by fierce but
short-lived storms, and then followed by calms. Their course lay
sometimes north, sometimes south, sometimes nowhere. Thus the time
passed, until at length, about the middle of September, they came in
sight of a long, low island of sand.

"I've heard of that sand-bank before," said the captain, who showed some
surprise at seeing it; "but I didn't believe it was here. It's not down
in the charts. Here we are three hundred and fifty miles southwest of
the Straits of Sunda, and the chart makes this place all open water.
Well, seein's believin'; and after this I'll swear that there is such a
thing as Coffin Island."

"Is that the name?"

"That's the name an old sea-captain gave it, and tried to get the
Admiralty to put it on the charts, but they wouldn't. But this is it,