"This I carefully bound round one leg, replacing the rag on the other, and then applied myself to the complete restoration of the bird. It gradually revived; and after drinking a little, surprised me by suddenly rising on the wing, faltering a moment in its flight, and then rapidly disappearing from my view in a westerly direction. "Now, father, one thought occupies me continually: will my note ever reach this Englishwoman? Shall I be able to find, and to save her?" I listened to this account with feelings of the liveliest interest and astonishment. "My dear son," said I, "you have done wisely in confiding to me alone your most exciting discovery. Unless we know more, we must not unsettle the others by speaking of it; for it appears to me quite possible that these words were penned long ago on some distant shore, where, by this time, the unhappy stranger may have perished miserably. By the 'smoking rock' must be meant a volcano. There are none here." Fritz was not disposed to look at the case from this gloomy point of view; did not think the rag so very old; believed smoke might rise from a rock which was not volcanic; and evidently cherished the hope that he might be able to respond effectually to this touching appeal. I was in reality as anxious as himself on the subject, but judged it prudent to abate rather than excite hopes of success which might be doomed to bitter disappointment. After earnest consultation on the subject, we decided that Fritz should go in search of the writer of the message, but not until he had so altered the canoe as to fit it for carrying two persons, as well as provisions sufficient to admit of his absence for a considerable time. Impatient as he was, he could not but see the wisdom of this delay. We returned to the house, and saw the boys busily opening the oysters, and greatly excited as ever and anon a pearl was found. "May we not establish a pearl fishery at once, father?" shouted they. "We might build a hut on the shore of the bay, and set about it regularly." An excursion to Pearl Bay was now the event to which all thoughts turned, and for which preparations on a grand scale were made. It was to form, as it were, the basis of the more important voyage Fritz had in view, and to which, unsuspected by the rest, he could devote all his attention. XII THE EXCURSION TO PEARL BAY It took some time to make several raking or scraping machines, which I invented for the purpose of detaching and lifting the oysters from their native rocks; but that gave Fritz leisure to change the fittings of his canoe, so as to have a spare seat in it. His brothers naturally concluded he meant to take one of them as shipmate on board, and he allowed the mistake to continue. They occupied themselves in making various articles they expected to be of use, and bore the delay with tolerable patience.