"Uncommonly awkward spot to be cast away upon," said Sir Reginald. "Why, it is a mere rock, by the look of it. And yet not quite a rock, either, for there is grass on it, and a few stunted bushes. But the whole place cannot be much more than ten acres in extent. And, as I live, there are people upon it. I can see smoke, and the flicker of a fire." "You are right, Elphinstone. There is a fire there; I have just caught sight of it," said Lethbridge. "Well," said Sir Reginald, "we must stop and take them off, although I don't much like the idea of admitting strangers to this ship, and so `giving our show away' to a certain extent. But, of course, we can't allow any considerations of that sort to weigh with us where the question is one of saving life. And nobody could contrive to sustain life for any length of time on that little patch of earth. Why, if another gale should spring up, they would be washed off, for a dead certainty." "Ay, that is a fact that there is no disputing," agreed Mildmay. "And, after all, you know, Elphinstone, there is no need for us to make those people acquainted with the fact that we are on an aerial and submarine, as well as an ordinary ship; they need know very little more about us than those people of the _Baroda_ know. And we can trans-ship them into the next craft belonging to a civilised nation that we fall in with." "Yes, of course we can," assented Sir Reginald. "Their fuel seems to be pretty damp, poor chaps; there is a good deal more smoke than fire there, to my thinking." "That, I take it, is intentional," said Mildmay. "They have probably seen us, and are making that big smoke to attract our attention. With your permission, Elphinstone, I will hoist our ensign, to let them know that we have seen them, and will get one of the boats ready for lowering." "Right, skipper; I will come and lend you a hand with the boat. Perhaps it would be as well to get both boats to the quarters, wouldn't it, as we are henceforth going to remain on the surface until we can say good-bye to those people." Mildmay agreed that it would; and in a few minutes both boats were hanging from their davits over the ship's two quarters, and the ensign flying from the staff. By this time the ship was within two miles of the island, and the interested watchers had caught sight of a man standing upon the highest point of his mere hand's-breadth of territory, waving his arms, as though still doubtful whether he had succeeded in attracting their attention. "There seems to be but one man there," observed Lethbridge, as the two men joined him. "If so, he must have had a pretty bad time of it. How long will he have been there, I wonder!" "Not very long, I suspect," answered Mildmay. "He probably got cast away in the gale that we had two days ago."