our minds for some neglected possibility of search.  I could stake my salvation on the certainty of the result:  in all that ship there was nothing left of value but the timber and the copper nails.  So that our case was lamentably plain; we had paid fifty thousand dollars, borne the charges of the schooner, and paid fancy interest on money; and if things went well with us, we might realise fifteen per cent of the first outlay.  We were not merely bankrupt, we were comic bankrupts:  a fair butt for jeering in the streets.  I hope I bore the blow with a good countenance; indeed, my mind had long been quite made up, and since the day we found the opium I had known the result.  But the thought of Jim and Mamie ached in me like a physical pain, and I shrank from speech and companionship.

I was in this frame of mind when the captain proposed that we should land upon the island.  I saw he had something to say, and only feared it might be consolation; for I could just bear my grief, not bungling sympathy; and yet I had no choice but to accede to his proposal.

We walked awhile along the beach in silence.  The sun overhead reverberated rays of heat; the staring sand, the glaring lagoon, tortured our eyes; and the birds and the boom of the far-away breakers made a savage symphony.

“I don’t require to tell you the game’s up?” Nares asked.

“No,” said I.

“I was thinking of getting to sea to-morrow,” he pursued.

“The best thing you can do,” said I.

“Shall we say Honolulu?” he inquired.

“O, yes; let’s stick to the programme,” I cried.  “Honolulu be it!”

There was another silence, and then Nares cleared his throat.

“We’ve been pretty good friends, you and me, Mr. Dodd,” he resumed.  “We’ve been going through the kind of thing that tries a man.  We’ve had the hardest kind of work, we’ve been badly backed, and now we’re badly beaten.  And we’ve fetched through without a word of disagreement.  I don’t say this to praise myself:  it’s my trade; it’s what I’m paid for, and trained for, and brought up to.  But it was another thing for you; it was all new to you; and it did me good to see you stand right up to it and swing right into it, day in, day out.  And then see how you’ve taken this disappointment, when everybody knows you must have been tautened up to shying-point!  I wish you’d let me tell you, Mr. Dodd, that you’ve stood out mighty manly and handsomely in all this business, and made every one like you and admire you.  And I wish you’d let me tell you, besides, that I’ve taken this wreck business as much to heart as you have; something kind of rises in my throat when I think we’re beaten; and if I thought waiting would do it, I would stick on this reef until we starved.”

I tried in vain to thank him for these generous words, but he was beforehand with me in a moment.

“I didn’t bring you ashore to sound my praises,” he interrupted.  “We understand one another now, that’s all; and I guess you can trust me.  What I wished to speak about is more important, and it’s got to be faced.  What are we to do about the Flying Scud and the dime novel?”