“Ah! you have really asked the question at last. I thought I should bring you to it!” laughed Justin. Then, growing suddenly grave, as he thought of the shipwreck, he said: “You remember the ill-fated _Sultana_?” “East Indiaman? sailed from Boston for Calcutta last October was two years ago? Yes, I should think I did. I was on the sloop of war _Peuguin_ at the Cape of Good Hope when she touched there. She remained two days, and then sailed, and was never heard of afterward.” “We were passengers on the _Sultana_. After leaving the cape she encountered heavy gales, and was driven entirely out of her course and out of her reckoning, and finally upon the reef of rocks below here, where she was wrecked.” “Great Heaven! And you were cast away here?” “Yes.” “And your fellow-voyagers?” “They were but too probably all lost.” “Tell me the particulars.” Justin settled himself in his chair and told the tragic story of the shipwreck. The lieutenant listened with deep interest. He was much too young a sailor to be very familiar with such disasters. When the narrative was finished, and he had expressed all the horror and the pity that was naturally inspired by the tremendous calamity, he said: “But in the midst of all the desolation it was very fortunate for you that the ship struck so high and fast between the rocks, and held so long together.” “Yes; it enabled us to save nearly all her cargo, provisions, and even furniture and live stock,” said Justin. “It was a stupendous undertaking to remove them all.” “Yes; but it was successfully accomplished; and it enabled us to establish ourselves comfortably here.” “Yes, indeed!” assented the young man, looking approvingly around upon the pleasant room. “That was more than two years ago. And you have lived here ever since, quite isolated from the world?” “Yes.” “And in all that time no ship has passed?” “Yes! one ship! But of that hereafter. Tell me now, lieutenant, how you come to be so far out of your course as to touch this island?” “We are not out of our course. We are cruising about these latitudes on the lookout for rebel privateers, as I told you. We were just as likely to find one lying to in your cove as anywhere else hereabouts.” “Just,” answered Justin, emphatically. “But we did not exactly come in here to look for them. In fact, we suffered some injury from the gale last night, and this morning we steered for this cove, that we might be at anchor here while repairing. It was while we were letting go the anchor that the captain, to his unbounded astonishment, saw you and your companion on the beach. He immediately sent a boat on shore to see who you could possibly be; for, up to the moment at which we discovered you, we had supposed the island to be entirely uninhabited.” “Then, of course, you did not see our signal?” “Signal? What signal? Had you a signal?”