"Some of 'em were stove in, others washed clean off their davits," said Sturgess. "It was absolutely impossible to lower one. No one who did not witness it would have believed that a fine ship could break to pieces so quickly. Gee whiz! One minute I was standing near the fore-rail, looking at the narrowing entrance in full confidence that we should win through, and the next I was fighting for my life in the smoking-room, up to my waist in water."

"You are not quite doing yourself justice, C. K.," said Madge. "You were fighting for other people's lives as well. I have the clearest recollection of being hauled up the companion ladder to the bridge by you and one of the ship's officers. Then you went back and helped Nina and Mr. Gray."

"That is what I was there for," was the prompt reply.

"This being Sunday, do we labor or rest, Alec?" inquired Nina.

It was the first time either girl had used Maseden's Christian name, and the sound on a woman's lips was like a caress. He reddened, and smiled.

Nina's eyes met his, and dropped confusedly.

"We rest," he said. "We need rest. At least, I am free to confess that _I_ do. You energetic people are inclined to forget that I began a really strenuous life by receiving a rap on the head that put me out of commission during several hours.... Now, Mr. Sturgess--sorry, C. K.--and I are going on a little tour along the coast. We shall be away an hour or more. I advise you two to rig yourselves as best you can in my superfluous garments. Make sure they are quite dry. It may seem rather absurd, but putting on damp clothing is an altogether different thing from allowing wet clothes to dry on your body. Keep a good fire. There is nothing to be afraid of. In this strange land there are neither animals nor reptiles."

"Nor birds," said Nina.

"Yes, plenty of birds, but the nesting season is long over, and many of the sea-birds have gone south. As we progress further inland we shall come across great colonies of puffins, ducks and swans. Curiously enough, there are plenty of humming-birds, which is about the last species one would expect off-hand to find in these wastes.... Come along, C. K. Let us try and circumvent the wily seal."

"Why not shoot one?" said Sturgess.

"Because I have only twenty-four cartridges, and each one may yet be worth its weight in diamonds. Remember, everybody!--we only use the rifle in the last extremity, either for food, or fire, or actual self-preservation. Once lighted, on no account must the fire be allowed to die out. Even when we build a raft, we can imitate the natives, and carry a fire with us. To save us men from temptation to-day, should we find a seal, we'll leave the gun with the ladies.

"A couple of cudgels, with ends sharpened and hardened in the fire, should serve our needs, and do the seal's business as well. If not, we must try again, and exist on oysters until we become more expert....

I'll put five cartridges in the magazine, and show you girls how it works. If you regard each shell as worth, say, five thousand dollars, you'll appreciate the net value of the whole twenty-four."

Within a few minutes Maseden and Sturgess set off. The tide was now at its lowest point, so they had no difficulty in walking in almost any direction. Their first act was to drag ashore the remains of the bunk.

Given a quantity of malleable iron and a fire, it would not be an impossible task to construct some rough tools.

While placing this treasure-trove above high-water mark they saw the two girls examining the stock of underclothes which Providence had literally provided for their needs.

"Gosh!" said Sturgess, almost reverently. "It beats me to know how a couple of delicate women could endure the hardships we have gone through."

"But women are not delicate. I don't understand why men invariably harbor that delusion. In passive resistance women are more steadfast, even hardier, than men. That is an essential, don't you see? The continuance of the race depends far more on the female than on the male.

Civilization tries to upset the great principles of life, but fails, luckily. Savage tribes are aware of that elementary fact. Low down in the social scale the women do all the work, while the men loaf around, and only get busy when hunting or fighting."

"Tell you what, Alec," said Sturgess admiringly, "once fairly started, you talk like a book."

Such a remark could hardly fail to act as a gag on one of Maseden's temperament. By habit a silent man, he shrank from even the semblance of loquacity. Sturgess could extract no further information from him. He in his turn soon learned to guard his tongue when the Vermonter was in the talking vein, and unconsciously pouring out the stock of knowledge and philosophy garnered during those peaceful years on the ranch.

"We had better go this way," said Maseden, pointing towards the west.

"Don't you think it advisable to search the coast seaward? There have been three tides since the ship struck, and anything likely to come ashore should have shown up by this time."

"Go right ahead, Alec. What you say goes."

Their search was fruitless. Indeed, the position in which the leather trunk was found proved that the set of the current on a rising tide was in the direction of the channel between the two small islands.

Maseden had little or no experience of the sea and its vagaries, or he would have noticed this highly significant fact, and thus saved himself and his companions much hardship and a good deal of needless risk.

Of course, he saw quickly that there was a remarkable absence of wreckage on the north side of the estuary, but he attributed it to the fury of the gale, which must have driven a great body of water far into the network of channels which stretched inland, with a resultant outpouring when the wind pressure was relaxed.

The only satisfactory outcome of a close visit to the bar was the complete vindication of their means of escape from the ledge. It would have been a sheer impossibility to round the point at or slightly above sea-level. The tides of untold ages had literally scooped a chasm out of the cliff, and perversely chosen to batter a passage through the rock rather than take the open path farther south.

They could not see the reef which had destroyed the _Southern Cross_.

But they could hear it. Ever above the clatter of the rollers on the nearer rocks they caught the sullen roar of the outer fury.

"Let's clear out of this," said Sturgess suddenly. "That noise sends a chill right down my backbone."

Maseden turned at once. In any case, they could not have remained there much longer, because the tide was on the flow, and they had yet to discover how swiftly it covered the rock-paved foreshore.

They did not hurry, but kept a sharp look-out for seals, seeing several, but at a great distance. While they were yet nearly a quarter of a mile from the camping ground, from which came a pillar of smoke, showing that the fire was not being neglected, they were startled by a gun-shot.

It smote the air with a sound that was all the more insistent in that it was wholly unexpected. It drove into the sea, with a loud splash, a seal close at hand which had been hidden by a rock, and even brought a pair of circling bustards from some eyrie high up on the hills.

With never a word to one another, both men began to run.

CHAPTER XIII

THE SECOND SHIPWRECK

A series of reefs does not supply the best of surfaces for a sprint.

Maseden slipped on a bed of seaweed and fell headlong, fortunately escaping injury. Sturgess, lighter, perhaps more adroit on his feet--it came out subsequently that he was an accomplished skater--stumbled several times, but contrived to keep going.

Thus he was the first to reach Madge Forbes, who hurried to meet them, followed by Nina, the latter walking more leisurely and carrying the rifle.

"What has happened?" gasped Sturgess. He saw that the girl was pale and frightened. She and her sister were continually looking backward, as though expecting to find they were being pursued.

"I think--it is all right--now," she said brokenly. "Nina shot at it--the most awful monster I have ever seen."

"Had it two legs, or four?"

Sturgess was incorrigible. Notwithstanding the start caused by the sound of the gun, he grinned. The girl turned to Nina.

"Please tell them, Nina, that we are not romancing," she cried indignantly.

Nina handed the rifle to Maseden.

"Put this thing right," she said coolly. "It won't work, but I'm sure I hit the beast with the first bullet."

Maseden pressed down the lever, and saw that a cartridge had jammed, as the extractor lever had not been jerked downward with sufficient force.

He began adjusting matters with the blade of his knife.

"Were you attacked by an animal?" he inquired.

"We don't know exactly what it was," said Madge. "When you left us we decided to have a bath before putting on dry clothes. As our only towel was the ship's flag, we arranged that each should rub the other dry with her hands. We had just finished dressing, and Nina had gone to pile fresh logs on the fire, when I heard a splash in the water of the creek.

I looked around and saw a fearful creature, bigger than a horse, which barked at me. I shrieked, and Nina ran with the rifle. The thing barked again--it was only a few feet away--so she fired. Then we both made off."