determination. It fell away as suddenly as it had risen. A heavy ground
swell still ran, but without the wind to roughen the surface and
sharpen the crests, the big timber rode safely through the sea. The
storm clouds were dropping back in a widening circle beneath the moon
when, as they heaved up on the top of a wave, Harrigan suddenly pointed
straight ahead and shouted hoarsely. On the horizon squatted a black
shadow, darker than any cloud.

All night they watched the shadow grow, and when the morning came and
the tropic dawn stepped suddenly up from the east, the light glinted on
the unmistakable green of verdure.

With the help of the steady wind they drifted slowly closer and closer
to the island. By noon they abandoned the timber and started swimming,
but the submerged beach went out far more gradually than they had
expected. The last hundred yards they walked arm in arm, floundering
through the gentle surf.

Then they stumbled up the beach, reeling with weariness, and sprawled
out in the shade of a palm tree. They were asleep almost before they
struck the sand.

It was late afternoon when they woke, ravenously hungry, their throats
burning with thirst. For food McTee climbed a coconut palm and knocked
down some of the fruit. They split the gourds open on a rock, drank the
liquor, and ate heartily of the meat. That quelled their appetites, but
the sweet liquor only partially appeased their thirst, and they started
to search the island for a spring. First they went to the center of the
place to a small hill, and from the top of this they surveyed their
domain. The island was not more than a thousand yards in width and