The boat was lying by the rooks. A pair of fellows,
bareheaded, with their sleeves rolled up, and one with a
boathook, kept her with difficulty to her moorings, for
the current was growing brisker every moment, A lit-
tle way off upon the ledge two men in black clothes,
whom I judged to be superior in rank, laid their heads
together over some task which at first I did not under-
stand, but a second after I had made it out — they were
taking bearings with the compass ; and just then I saw



42 THE MEEBT MEN,

one of them unroll a sheet of paper and lay his finger
down, as though identifying features in a map. Mean-
while a third was walking to and fro, poking among the
rocks and peering over the edge into bhe water. While
I was still watching them with the stupefaction of sur-
prise, my mind hardly yet able to work on what my
eyes reported, this third person suddenly stooped and
summoned his companions with a cry so loud that it
reached my ears upon the hill. The others ran to him,
even dropping the compass in their hurry, and I could
see the bone and the shoe-buckle going from hand to
hand, causing the most unusual gesticulations of sur-
prise and interest. Just then I could hear the seamen
crying from the boat, and saw them point westward to
that cloud continent which was ever the more rapidly
unfurling its blackness over heaven. The others
seemed to consult ; but the danger was too pressing to
be braved, and they bundled into the boat carrying my
relics with them, and set forth out of the bay with all
speed of oars.
