"You see, he had not forsaken us," said Oliver, in a whisper to his friends.

"Ah, at last," cried the mate, springing on board, and eagerly grasping the young men's hands. "I was getting in despair about you."

"And we about you," said Oliver. "I thought you had left us in the lurch."

"Just what I should do," said the mate, grimly. "How was I to come to your help with a pocket knife and a marlin-spike? Those were all the arms we had."

"What?" cried Oliver. "Where were the guns that Smith brought?"

"Never brote none, sir," cried Smith. "Didn't I tell yer the n.i.g.g.e.rs cut me off, when you found me with my toes a-sticking out of the bamboos?"

No other explanation was needed, for the mate soon told them how he had sailed round the island, and been trying again and again to communicate.

The next question was, what was to be done?

That was soon decided. The brig was by that time a heap of ashes, and it was madness to think of attacking and punishing the savages; so after a hearty meal, and some rest, the lugger was anch.o.r.ed for the night in the sheltered waters of the lagoon, prior to an early start next morning for one or other of the isles to the east.

But they were not destined to rest in peace. Soon after midnight, the water began to be disturbed, the mountain burst into a frightful state of eruption, and the sea rose and fell so that there was every prospect of their being cast on the island, high and dry once more.

There was plenty of light for the evolutions, so hoisting sails which looked orange in the glow, they ran for the first opening they could find in the reef, pa.s.sed through in safety, and stood out to sea, where they lay to a few miles away, watching the awfully grand display of fire, rising fountain-like from the volcano, down whose sides golden and blood-red water seemed to be running in streams.

All that night the lugger rocked with the terrible concussions, succeeding each other without half a minute's interval, and when the sun rose the gla.s.ses showed a great smoke rising from a desolate-looking sh.o.r.e, at one end of which the mountain, about half its former height, was pouring forth clouds of ashes and covering the sea thickly as far as eye could reach.

The glorious groves and bright scenery were gone, destroyed in a few hours, and the strange convulsions which kept on occurring, rendered it necessary to run as rapidly as could be for safer waters and brighter skies.

As the day went on an island was reached, and an addition made to their provisions and water. A few days later they were at the British port in New Guinea, where they once more provisioned for their run south to get within the shelter of the Great Barrier Reef.

Brisbane was made, and then Sydney, from which port a pa.s.sage was taken for home, where all arrived in safety with the grandest set of Natural History specimens ever collected in one voyage.

"I do wonder what became of those blacks," said Panton, one evening when they were dining with Captain Rimmer, to celebrate his appointment to a fine vessel in the China trade, in which he was to start the following week, and in which he had laughingly offered them a cabin for three.

"Nothing would please me better," he had said, "and you will find your old friends Smith and Wriggs with me as boatswain and his mate."

But appointments at scientific inst.i.tutions kept the three friends at home, and it was in the course of conversation that Panton alluded to the blacks.

"Ah, and I wonder what became of all those wondrous b.u.t.terflies and birds?"

"And the wealth of vegetation?" said Drew.

"Swept away, sir," said the captain, "swept away. Strange things take place where there are burning mountains."

"But out of the ruins fresh natural glories grow," said Panton.

"Yes," said Oliver, "and I suppose all things are for the best. But I should have liked to go with you, Captain Rimmer, to see Fire Island once again."

THE END.