We were up betimes next morning; and, after our matutinal bath and a good breakfast, dowsed the tents, got our spars on board and in their places, bent the sails, and put the few finishing touches which were necessary to make the cutter all ready for sea once more.
This done, it was time to see about finding a way out from among the numerous reefs which girt the island, as we believed, entirely round.
We had come through, or, rather, over them once, it is true, but it was in a fashion that I should have been very sorry to see repeated; and on that occasion we had no choice; but as I had no fancy for the little craft’s again scraping such rude acquaintance with the rocks, I resolved to take the boat and make a trip in her along the western side of the island, in search of a safe channel to sea.
Accordingly, Bob and I got the light spars and sails of the boat out, rigged and stepped the former, bent the latter, and then we all sat down to an early dinner.
It was my original intention to have gone away alone, but Ella begged so hard to be allowed to come with me that I had not the heart to refuse her, especially as there was no sufficient reason for so doing. So I consented, promising her that after our exploration was over, if time permitted, she should have a ramble on shore on the southern side of the mountain, when we would lay in a sea-stock of fruit at the same time.
Bob said he would accompany us, and try his luck with the fishing-lines, whilst Ella and I took our proposed stroll; and to this also there seemed no objection, as the cutter was in a berth where the hardest gale that ever blew could not have endangered her safety in the slightest degree.
Accordingly, as soon as the meal was over, we shoved off, some instinct prompting me, at the last moment, to take one of our revolving rifles and a small supply of cartridges with me. We soon slid out of the cove, and shortly afterwards rounded the north-western extremity of the island.
This was the first trial of our sliding-gunter mainsail upon our singularly-constructed boat; and Bob and I were thrown into perfect raptures at the truly marvellous speed with which it propelled the craft along. The Water Lily was wonderfully fast; but in smooth water and light winds, her boat would have sailed round and round her.
We skimmed rapidly along the edge of the western reef, and when we had run about four miles to the southward, found a good wide break, which looked as though it led out to sea. I put up the helm at once, and away we darted almost dead before the wind, down through it.
It was rather a circumbendibus sort of affair, and somewhat narrow in places, though everywhere there was sufficient room to work the Lily in; and after a run of about half an hour, we shot out between two overhanging ledges, the extremities of which showed about, six feet above water, and found ourselves rising and falling on the long swell of the open ocean.