“Well, then, stay here till I come for you,” and Ned disappeared down the rigging.
Harry had not long to wait when he again heard his voice.
“All is ready,” he whispered. “We took the bearings of the island before dark, and can steer a straight course for it. Don’t speak to any one. Follow me into the boat; she is waiting under the forechains; you will find a rope by which you can lower yourself into her.”
Humphry followed Ned without ever stepping on deck, and took his seat near him in the stern of the boat, which noiselessly shoved off from the ship’s side. The crew bent to their oars, while Ned steered by a boat compass lighted by a lantern at his feet.
Humphry breathed more freely when he felt himself out of the ship. Yet what a fate was to be his. To be left alone on an island where he might have to spend long, long years, cut off from all intercourse with his fellow-creatures. Yet anything was better than having to associate with the wretched men on board the Wolf.
They soon lost sight of the ship, and the boat made her way across the dark water, the island not being yet visible ahead.
“Are they all dead, have none been spared?” asked Humphry at length, yet half fearing to speak on the subject which occupied his thoughts.
“I told you, Mr Gurton, to ask no questions,” answered Ned in a hollow voice. “The sooner you put all thoughts of what happened last night out of your head the better. Just think of what you have got to do. You will have to keep your wits awake where you are going, depend on that. I wish we could stop to help you, but we have promised to be back as soon as we have landed your things. All I can tell you is, that there is said to be water, and you will probably find cocoa-nut and bread-fruit trees, and other roots and fruits; and as we have put up lines and hooks, and a gun and ammunition, and a couple of harpoons, and lines for catching seals, it will be your fault if you do not manage to find as much food as you want.”
“But how shall I be able to live all alone by myself on the island?” said Humphry with a sigh.
“Better to be all alone than food for the sharks, I have a notion,” observed one of the men who overheard him.