, 1909-12-23

spadefui or san which had been tossed
over the buried gunwales and now
b searched eagerly the boat itself.
Her inspection revealed nothing.
There were lockers at either end.
These she opened. finding nothing
therein but Wondering remains of
cloth. bags of some sort which she
surmised might have contained ships
bread. and a little barrel or key, which
had probably carried water for the
soyagers.
The BOAT ppe ed to be in an ex-
cellent state OF preservation. There
were even a pair If oars lying on the
thwarts. If she could have dug it out
of the sand entirely. she fancied she
could have launched it and used it.
But such a task was utterly beyond
her. Besides there would have been
no gain in having the boat afloat. She
would not dare to take it out beyond
the barrier reef and there wac nothing
to ROY for in the lagoon.
She easily broke the rotting lines
with which the oars were secured and
took them out. They would be useful
perhaps in some way. And then after
n long look at the boat and with a feel
ing hat her labor had been mainly
wasted, she vas about to turn away
when the thought struck her that
sometimes boats carried the names of
the ships to which they belonged on
their bows or across their sterns. She
lad to the shovel once more,
and after some deliberation essayed
the stern of the boat.
1t was not so hard to shovel the
sand away from it and here she did
make a discovery, for although the let
ters had been almost obliterated by
the action of the sand, she could still
make them out. After some study
she decided hat the name of the boat,
or of the ship to which 1t had be-
longed, had been Nansemond of Nor
lolk, Virginia. That was the net re
suit of the hard labors of a long morn
ing. 1t told her something. but not
much. Assuming that the man with
her was John Revell Charnock and as
suming that he had come to the island
in the past or that boat, 1t indicated
hat he was at least an American and
a Virginian. 1t identified him. if her
suppositions were correct, and wheth
er there was warrant for them or hi
instinctively and naturally she con.
cluded that she was correct.
Admitting all this, however, it
gave her no clew from which to build a
history. The testimony of the boat
was interesting, that was all. Her first
thought was to leave it where 1t was.
but her second thought was better.
With the aid of the stout piece of
board which had served her for a
shovel, she hammered away at the
Tern piece until she broke it off, She
saw now that the boat must have lain
there in the sand for many years, for
the wood was brittle and the fasten-
largely destroy ed, for the stern
flece came easily away. She laid 1t
aside for a moment intending to pre-
it with the Bible. HEAVIER
! lows what dream of future useful
ress in the way of evidence establish
inz identity these might be. entered
her mind.
Then she threw herself down under
the trees and rested. She had LETT
her watch, her precious watch, back
in the cave with the book. She did
not dare to carry it around with her.
She had no way of carrying 1t in the
thin. single garment which h wore'
but she judged from the height OF the
sun hat it must be noon time. The
made their meal off the fruits OF the
island, this time with a rich and juicy
cocoanut added, which the man got for
her at her suggestion in he sign Ian
guage at which she was becoming ex-
pert, by climbing with wonderful agil-
ity, ape-like agility almost. one OF the
tall cocoanut palms with which the
island abounded. There were fruits
of various sorts in great plenty on the
island and she was becoming accus-