"Certainly."
Slowly, but surely, the sloop drew nearer. She was a fair-sized craft, and carried a crew of three. The men seemed to be nice fellows, and not at all of the Captain Langless class. Soon the sloop dropped anchor close in shore and the mainsail came down at the same time.
CHAPTER XXIX.
DORA STANHOPE APPEARS.
"So you have been shipwrecked?" said the master of the sloop, a young man of apparently twenty-five, whose name was Fairwell.
"Yes," answered Baxter senior.
"Your own boat, or some large vessel?"
"Our own boat. We were out on a little cruise when we struck something in the dark and our craft went down almost immediately. Fortunately we were not far from this shore, or we would have been drowned. Where are you bound?"
"Nowhere in particular. How long have you been on the island?"
"Since night before last?"