"Why, we'll never get there to-day!" "Won't we ?" said the skipper.

"Thet's all you know 'bout it, mister.
The _Pilot's Bride_ 'll walk over thet little bit o' water like a race hoss, an' 'ill arrive at Tristan 'fore dinner time, you bet!" The skipper's prognostication as to the time of their arrival did not turn out quite correct, but Fritz's anxiety was allayed by their reaching the place the same night; for, the mountain peak, which had been noticed above the haze that hung over the lower part of the island, began to rise higher and higher as the ship approached, until its sharp ridges could be plainly seen beneath a covering of snow that enveloped the upper cone and which changed its colour from glistening white to a bright pink hue as it became lit up by the rays of the setting sun--the latter dipping beneath the western horizon at the same instant that the _Pilot's Bride_ cast anchor in a shallow bay some little distance off the land, close to Herald Point, where the English settlement on the island lies..