'Hold on!' he shouted, fell flat down, and laid hold o' the nearest bush.

Next moment the wave burst right over the wall, roared on up to the garden, 150 yards above highwater mark, and swept his house clean away! By good fortune the wall stood the shock, and the schooner stuck fast just before reachin' it, but so near that the end of the jib-boom passed right over the place where the household lay holdin' on for dear life and half drowned.

It was a tremendous night," concluded the captain, "an' nearly everything on the islands was wrecked, but they've survived it, as you'll see.

Though it's seven years since that cyclone swep' over them, they're all right and goin' ahead again, full swing, as if nothin' had happened." "And is Ross III.

still king ?" asked Nigel with much interest.
"Ay--at least he was king a few years ago when I passed this way and had occasion to land to replace a tops'l yard that had been carried away." "Then you won't arrive as a stranger ?" "I should think not," returned the captain, getting up and gazing steadily at the _atoll_ or group of islets enclosed within a coral ring which they were gradually approaching.
Night had descended, however, and the gale had decreased almost to a calm, ere they steered through the narrow channel--or what we may call a broken part of the ring--which led to the calm lagoon inside.