She

cawing rooks, and the familiar volumes on the shelves, and in their place there rises a vision of the great calm ocean gleaming in shaded silver lights beneat

rd is a low dim line. It is the Eastern shore of Central Africa. We are running to the southward, before the North East Monsoon, between the mainland and the reef that for hundreds of miles fr

lds up his hand, and says

comes again, a slow, majestic so

not out in his reckoning, which I think very probable, to make

d the Fire of Life," corrected Leo, taking h

tell you? He has been trading (slave-trading, probably) up and down these latitudes for half of his iniquit

akes, especially pythons, and game, and that no man lives there. But then there i

ith us. They think that we are mad, and upon my word I believe that they are right. If ever we see old England again I shall be astonish

ng to take my chance. Look! What is that cloud?" and he pointe

e man at the t

is arms, and went. P

ll, but it will pass

brown flannel, and with a sort of perplexed appearance upon his honest round f

thing of the provisions in the lockers, I think it would be best if I got down and slept in her. I don't like the looks" (here he dropped his voice to a portentous whisper) "of these black gentry; th

to be identical with the one described upon the sherd and by Leo's father, he would probably not be able to run up to it on account of the shallows and breakers. Therefore we had employed three hours that very morning, whilst we were totally becalmed, the wind having dropped at sunrise, in transferring most of our goods and chattels to the whale-boat, and placing the guns, ammunition, and preserved provisions in the water-tight lockers specially prepared for them, so that when we did s

e are lots of blankets there, only be careful to keep o

lready with the sight of these blackamoors and their filthy, thieving ways. T

o admirer of the manners and cus

ked in little gusts and jerks. The night was so lovely, and our brains were so full of suppressed excitement of one sort and another, that we did not feel inclined to turn in. For nearly an hour we sat thus, and then, I think, we both doze

he sky aft was dark as pitch, but the moon still shone brightly ahead of us and lit up the blackness. Beneath its sheen a huge white-topped breaker, twenty feet high or more, was rushing on to us. It was on the break-the moon shone on its crest and tipped its foam with light. On it rushed beneath the inky sky, driven

re po

last had torn out the great sail, and high in the air it was fluttering away to leeward like a huge wounded bird.

had been steering, leap into her. I gave one desperate pull at the tow-rope to bring the boat alongside. Wildly I sprang also, Job caught me by the arm and I rolled into the bottom of the boat. Down went the d

hrieked, "where

into my ear; and such was the fury of the s

Leo was drowned, and I wa

led Job; "here

s on us now, and the boat was nearly full of water. But she was built in air-tight compartments-Heaven bless the man who invented them!-and lifted up through it like a swan. Through the foam and turmoil I saw the black thing on the wave hurrying right at me. I put out my right arm to ward it from me, and my hand closed on another a

shouted Job, suiting t

al darkness, one faint, flying ray of light lit upon the face of the man I

y the wave-back, dead or alive

t!" yelled Job, "o

e storm wreaths and the sheets of stinging spray blinded and bewildered us, but through it all we worked like demons with the wild exhilaration of despair, for even despair can exhilarate. One minute! three minutes! six minutes! Th

re, half a mile ahead of us, was a white line of foam, then a little space of open-mouthed blackness, and then another line of white. It was the breakers, and their roar grew clea

st try and shoot them." At the same moment I seized an

another minute the boat's head was straight on to the ever-nearing foam, towards which she plunged and tore with the speed of a racehorse. Just in fron

start out of his head. The send of the sea was driving the boat's head round to starboard. If we struck the line of breakers fifty yards to starboard of the gap we must sink. It was a great field of twisting, spouting waves. Mahomed planted his foot against the seat before him,

rywhere like avenging ghosts from their ocean grave. Once we were turned right round, but either by chance, or through Mahomed's skilful steering, the boat's head came straight again before a breaker filled us. One more-a mons

Probably the ridge that formed the headland ran out into the ocean, only at a lower level, and made the reef also. This headland was terminated by a curious peak that seemed not to be more than a mile away from us. Just as we got the boat pretty clear for the second time, Leo, to my immense relief, opened his eyes and remarked that the clothes had tumbled off the bed, and that he supposed it was time

lessened speed, for the wind had fallen, and only the current or

e, down to our final escape, repeated itself, only not quite so violently. Mahomed's skilful steering and the air-tight compartments saved our lives. In five minutes we were throug

en occasioned by the squall, and the tide, which had been running so fiercely up the river (for we were now in the mouth of a river), was sluggish before it turned, so we floated quietly, and before the moon went down managed to bail out the boat thoroughly and get her a little ship-shape. Leo was

with leisure to reflect upon all that we had gone through and all that we had escaped. Job stationed himself at the

places. Quieter and yet more quiet grew the sea, quiet as the soft mist that brooded on her bosom, and covered up her troubling, as the illusive wreaths of sleep brood upon a pain-racked mind, causing it to forget its sorrow. From the east to the west sped the angels of the Dawn, from sea to sea, from mountain-top to mountain-top, scattering light with both their hands. On they

of humanity, and all things with which humanity has to do. The symbol and the type, yes, and the earthly beginning, and the end also. And on that morning this came ho

n of Death! And we four were saved. But one day a sunrise will come when we shall be among those who are lost, and then othe

is the lo