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THE MOTION PICTURE STORY MAGAZINE
the lurching and listing deck, they made a trip to the galley, quickly gathering up pots and cans of provisions, boxes of biscuits and a barrel of water. Placing these on the raft, and, at the last moment, adding a gun and cartridges, the captain fastened them down with a canvas sheet. All the instruments he would need were already in his pockets.
The ship was listing badly by this time, so, lashing the children to the mast on the raft, the captain waited for the next wrave to break over The Dauntless. As it receded, he gave the raft a shove and sprang aboard. Over the rail of the ship they were borne, tossed and buffeted, out upon the broad bosom of the Pacific.
Then followed day after day of agony for the castaways. They were drenched by the waves and scorched by the sun. They had food, but they ate little — the sickness of desolation was upon them. The captain scanned the horizon by the hour. He was in a pitiable state. The unremitting anxiety of those sleepless days and nights, the loss of his ship, which meant his fortune, and the uncertainty of the fate in store for him and the children had worn him to a nervous shadow. His strong heart ached at the sight of the little ones' misery. To see his child suffer was torture to him, and his growing fondness for the manly, uncomplaining, resourceful lad only added to his torment.
Jack and May huddled on the raft, wretched, speechless. The water, heaving, lapping, spuming about
THE CASTAWAYS PRAYING
them, had become a horrible monster that filled them with loathing. They could feel the captain's hopelessness, and it cast a spell of terror and despondency over them.
They were startled from this state, early one morning, by an exclamation from the captain. He was standing up, his glass to his eye. The children watched him anxiously.
"Yes," he muttered thru swollen lips, "it's land!"
"Daddy!" gasped May, "do you see land?"
* ' Yes, dear. It 's still far away, but we are drifting toward it."
Life immediately took on a new interest for the wan little derelicts. They wanted to look thru the spyglass, and were disappointed when they could see nothing. But they began speculating, with a pale flash of enthusiasm, on what sort of an island it would be. When the captain announced that he could see trees, the interest of the children increased.
"Do you suppose there will be monkeys and parrots in the trees?" May solemnly inquired of Jack.
"Perhaps," he said. "And there may be goats, and they will give us milk, and we can make clothes like Robinson Crusoe's out of their skins. I am glad the captain brought the gun along."
' ' I dont want to wear goatskins ! ' ' moaned May, with a squirm of her blistered shoulders; "it's too warm!"
"Well, then," said the accommodating Jack, "we'll have to find something else."
Meanwhile the captain watched the island, as the raft slowly drifted toward it.
' ' It doesn 't look as if it was inhabited," he said.
All three scanned it closely as they approached, but there was no sign of life near the shore.
Gradually the raft floated into a cove. When it struck a shoal, the captain leaped off, and, taking May on his shoulder, waded ashore. Jack followed with the gun, ready to repel any hostile attack. They staggered up the beach, stiff and aching from