"And so say I, sir," said Jackson, touching an imaginary cap with his forefinger, while Barry and Fenwick both looked a little ashamed of themselves, and Pollard mechanically followed the example set by the sailor. "Them as grumbles had better keep out of my sight unless they want to be kicked." "You're fine fellows, both of you," cried Percival, heartily. And then he shook hands with Jackson, and would have followed suit with the steerage passenger, had not Mackay drawn back his hand. "I'm not in condition for shaking hands with anybody," he said, with a smile; and Percival remembered his burns and was content. "I know this place," said Jackson, looking round him presently. "It's a dangerous reef, and there's been a many accidents near it. Ships give it a wide berth, as a general rule." The men's faces drooped when they heard this sentence. "The _Duncan Dunbar_ was wrecked here on the way to Auckland. The _Mercurius_, coming back from Sydney by way of 'Frisco, she was wrecked, too--in '70. It's the Rocas Reef, mates, which you may have heard of or you may not; and, as near as I remember, it's about three degrees south of the Line: longitude thirty-three twenty, west." "I remember now," said Percival, eagerly. His work as a journalist helped him to remember the event to which Jackson alluded. "The men of the _Mercurius_ found some iron tanks filled with water, left by the _Duncan Dunbar_ people. We might go and see if they are still here. But first we must attend to this man's leg." "It is not very bad," said Mackay. "It's tremendously swollen, at any rate. Are you good at this sort of work, Jackson? I can't say I am." "I know something about it," said Jackson. "Let's have a look, mate."