CHAPTER VI.
Inside of a fortnight after the events just chronicled, the women came ashore to occupy the practically completed huts.
The Doraine was deserted except for Captain Trigger and the half-dozen sailors who remained with him.

These sailors were ancient tars whose lives had been spent at sea.

They were grizzled, wizened old chaps.

One of them, Joe Sands, had been an able seaman for forty-six years, and, despite a perpetual crick in the back, he insisted that he was still an abler seaman than ninety-five per cent, of the thirty-year-olds who followed the sea for a living.

When Captain Trigger announced his resolve to stay on board, where he belonged, these vainglorious old seadogs elected to remain with him to the end.
The exodus of women was hastened somewhat by the further listing of the Doraine.