Thornton, on the afternoon of the third day.

It was not the first time that the query had been on the lips of more than one of the unfortunates, but each time they had dreaded to ask the question, as they feared the answer.

“I can not say exactly, of course,” answered Captain Gray, “but as the wind that has been treating us so unmercifully, was from the southeast we have been keeping, apparently, a course, more or less, to the northwest, and I should say we are considerably northwest of our position when we left the ship.”

“Do we stand much chance of being picked up by some passing ship, Captain?” asked Mabel.

“No, I’m afraid we do not,” answered the captain, “as we are rather out of the line of ship travel. You see, the winds had been quite light for several days before we abandoned the vessel, and what headway we made was entirely to the westward, so that we were considerably farther west than the usual course of vessels.”

“Then we may as well make up our minds to die first as last, is that the way of it, Captain?” asked Allen.

23“No, we will not give up yet by any means. Do you remember, Etta, the day before we left the ship, when I was marking our position on the chart, you asked me what all those little black dots, extending in a curved line almost ahead of us, were?”

23

“Yes, papa, I do indeed, and you said they were little islands, or reefs that had been sighted from time to time by some vessel.”

“Well, there lies our chance for safety,” said the captain. “We are now considerably nearer them, I should judge, and we may be able to make one of those islands.”

“How long will it take us to reach the islands, do you suppose?” asked Mabel.

“Well, I can’t say that we will ever reach them, my dear Mabel, I can only hope so; but even if we do, we may be no better off, as some of them are simply coral reefs, others barren and desolate, being of recent volcanic origin, while still others are inhabited by the fiercest tribes of cannibals. They are, for the most part, unexplored, as they are in latitudes where storms from the south, such as we have passed through, are of frequent occurrence, and the quantity of reefs make the approach to them a matter of great peril.”

“Well, Mabel, we will 

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