The storm clouds were dropping back in a widening circle beneath the moon when, as they heaved up on the top of a wave, Harrigan suddenly pointed straight ahead and shouted hoarsely.

On the horizon squatted a black shadow, darker than any cloud.
All night they watched the shadow grow, and when the morning came and the tropic dawn stepped suddenly up from the east, the light glinted on the unmistakable green of verdure.
With the help of the steady wind they drifted slowly closer and closer to the island.

By noon they abandoned the timber and started swimming, but the submerged beach went out far more gradually than they had expected.

The last hundred yards they walked arm in arm, floundering through the gentle surf.
Then they stumbled up the beach, reeling with weariness, and sprawled out in the shade of a palm tree.

They were asleep almost before they struck the sand.
It was late afternoon when they woke, ravenously hungry, their throats burning with thirst.