and no mistake."

"Why did he call it Coffin Island?"

"Well, he thought that rock looked like a coffin, and it's dangerous
enough when a fog comes to deserve that name."

Brandon looked earnestly at the island which the captain mentioned, and
which they were slowly approaching.

It lay toward the north, while the ship's course, if it had any in that
calm, was southwest. It was not more than six miles away, and appeared
to be about five miles long. At the nearest extremity a black rock arose
to a height of about fifty feet, which appeared to be about five hundred
feet long, and was of such a shape that the imagination might easily see
a resemblance to a coffin. At the farthest extremity of the island was a
low mound. The rest of the island was flat, low, and sandy, with no
trace of vegetation perceptible from the ship, except a line of dingy
green under the rock, which looked like grass.

The ship drifted slowly on.

Meanwhile the captain, in anticipation of a storm, had caused all the
sails to be taken in, and stood anxiously watching the sky toward the
southwest.

There a dense mass of clouds lay piled along the horizon, gloomy,
lowering, menacing; frowning over the calm seas as though they would
soon destroy that calm, and fling forth all the fury of the winds. These
clouds seemed to have started up from the sea, so sudden had been their