BACK TO THE WORLD Captain Stuart Whyte of His Majesty's gallant sloop of war, the _Hawk_, was standing on his own quarterdeck, looking curiously at the scene about him, and, taking it in, as well as he could, by the light of a great bonfire blazing on the beach some distance away.

He was a young officer and his immense relief predominated over his curiosity.

The _Hawk_ was a fine sloop, and he loved her, but there had been a terrible time that night when he thought she was lost and her crew and himself with her.
He had seen more than one storm in these sudden seas, but this was perhaps the worst.

All bearings were gone, and then the signs showed breakers.

He was a brave man and he had brave officers, but every one of them had despaired, until suddenly a light, a pillar of fire, rose in the darkness and the storm, almost from the heart of the ocean, as if it had been evoked by his own signal guns.