The Ship of Coral

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xuriously. Gaspard was shod, for he had turned in all standing just before the disa

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rdieu! Yes, when you

n old woman; if you found anything fu

nto a heap, spread the sail on the sand, and placing the crabs in the sail, made a bund

afe till we come back,

ght across the is

e edge with thick bay-cedar bushes rising to the knees. The only trees upon it were the p

, now passing into the western sky, struck them on their left sides so that they could have sworn they were walking sid

e the funny thing is that we should be sweating ourselves like th

es; "you will not be

great reef that had destroyed the Rhone lay due south; northward ther

d his way out of the bushes and on to

uth of the island, for the reefs and the shallows were continually changing in the wonderful light of the tropics to suit the hour of the day; colours chasing colours, sky blue parallels of sea and heather purple lines of reef gre

tiny shores, the tune of the reefs. Sometimes in those great low tides in which we fancy the moon and the sun hauling together at the heavy blue robe of the sea, as if to make her shew her hidden armour and her scars, the reefs would be fully exposed, razor-edged, hu

spard followed him, treading the seaweed under foot. There were no gulls here; the fishing ground of the gulls lay to the sou

he ledge of the rocks, but Gaspard had eyes f

as, to walk on them would be impossible; but this great ledge was comparatively smooth; it lay above high ti

nning to shew. It was plain to the eye that the whole reef formed the edge of an11 immense b

rom the shore; then he stopped, turned, and p

ess emerald, its floor of salt white sand, though invisible to the eye, was still reached by the

merging from the water, had for a base a column thicker than a man's body, a column here dazzling bright and flower coloured, here dim and darkened with growing fucus; a column whose lowermost part was lost in the vagueness of the lagoon. The Moco, who had flung himself down

imself the imagination of the southern man and the imagination of the sailor, this hint of a ship in

e down till the sight found the pale

was Yves, and lying side by side on the grey dead coral of the reef, they con

ven years ago by some great wave, she must have passed at one stride of the sea over the circling ree

last resting place who could say; what had been her business who could tell, but trumpets could not have proclaimed doom and d

at the seaweed did not grow. The eight feet indicated the rise and fall of the tide, for the lagoon, though shewing no break in its encircli

to a submarine wind, now like dark brown ribbons of shadow, now like a drowned woman's hair powdered with sparkling blossoms; now a

, and foot by foot the seaweed portion beneath the foretop stole from the water and stood dripping, dank, and dismal in the sun, clearer and clearer like a grey cloud, fi

made from dark lace and strewn here and there with all colours from the brilliant red of tiny starfish to the delicate peach-bloom of the flat l

changes in the water below. Now forgetting to smoke, they lay on their elbows looking down into the green depth where, stronger through the shallowing water, sharper, clear

aw you ever a ship built in that fashion floating on the sea? Why she is from the time of Noah-In the

to within a foot of low water mark, and as the veil of water lessened so did the vision strengthen; one could make out the decks clearly, all rough with coral, and the coral ban