was getting well on in the morning, and they were beginning to feel as if breakfast would be acceptable, they started back to the boat. They were rather disappointed at not having found any traces of fresh water, but hoped that the captain and Ben, who had gone in the opposite direction, had been more fortunate, and so indeed they had. Not far from where the boat was moored they came upon a little stream, whose limpid water hurrying over its rock-brown bed, was a joyful sight to the searchers. Passing a little beyond the shining brooklet, on whose bank they stopped a moment, both the captain and Ben taking a long draught of the sweet water, they came upon a lovely beach covered with bits of coral, shining sands and bright shells. Ben, running down to the water’s edge, soon turned with the exclamation, “It’s just as you thought, captain, when you said there should be plenty of crab, if we could find a good beach. See, here is a fine one, I have caught.” After working for some time they managed to capture eight fine crabs.

33

“Now,” said the captain, “I think we had better go back to camp with what we have, and delay our expedition until after breakfast. It will take some time to prepare these, even if Hans and the girls have managed to get a fire.”

“All right, just as you say, captain,” came the answer, “but if you will wait just a few minutes I will get some of that sea-weed we have seen clinging to the rocks. It makes first-rate eating.”

34“What, that black, slippery looking stuff?” asked the captain.

34

“Yes, sir. The natives of several islands down in these parts eat it, and I have tasted it and it’s first rate.”

“That’s so,” said Captain Gray, “now I come to think of it, I have seen the natives of the Hawaiian Islands, and Samoa, eat it.”

So, gathering a quantity of the sea kale, they also started back for the boat.

In the meantime the girls and Hans had not been idle. They had searched in all directions for material to build a fire. They succeeded in finding a number of pieces of driftwood, which, during some storm had been cast high and dry on this rocky point. The captain had been fortunate enough to have kept some matches perfectly dry, as his little gold match-box, which he carried in an inner pocket, shut so tightly that not a drop of water had reached the now much needed and precious matches. The girls had arranged a fire all ready to light when any of the party came 

 Prev. P 19/76 next