Perhaps, and really this cherub was all the captain of the San Salvador had to trust to in the inky darkness of the night; but two very substantial cherubs were always in the foretop and cross-trees by day, and often one of these bore the blue eyes of Fred Arundel.
Kerguelen Isles at last. Blackness and desolation. Only the wild birds, that flocked and flew in myriads about the cliffs and rocks; only an occasional seal, or the head of a monster sea-elephant raised above the black water, to gaze wonderingly at the ship under sail, which, if the beast thought at all, he must have taken for some gigantic bird.
The captain landed in a bay. Yes, people had been here, and lately too. Whalers perhaps, or shipwrecked mariners; but no signs or sounds of human life were seen or heard now, so he came away and the voyage was resumed.
South still. South and east; and after five days of rough and tumble sailing, sometimes with showers of snow driving across the deck and almost choking the men as they kept watch, on a bright, clear morning the man at the mast-head once more raised the cry of "Land, ho!"
An island, undoubtedly.
Perhaps one of the outlying rocks of Donell's Group. They would have passed it, and sailed on their course to resume the search for the missing whalers; but young Fred's eagle eye noticed smoke, and instantly reported it.
"Haul the foreyard aback. Away, whaler!"
These were the orders, and speedily executed they were. Out swang the boat, and down, taking the water on an even keel, and in five minutes' time Captain Cawdor himself, accompanied by Fred, was steering away over the blue-black waters for a little bay in the desolate island.
Here, to their surprise, they found two men, and the joy the poor fellows evinced as the boat's keel rasped on the shingle was almost hysterical. They had been living in a cave near by, and from the way it was lined with sealskins it was evident enough that they had not gone short of provisions during their sojourn here, and that, moreover, despairing of being rescued for long months to come, they had commenced preparations for spending the winter in comparative comfort.
They had a large boat too, and the first thing that the captain noticed was the name painted on her bows—Resolute.