Tom now advanced, and proceeded to examine her.  When he was arranging her cargo before, the coil of rope had been in the bows.  This had prevented him from detecting anything wrong in the boat.  But now, since everything had been taken out, one glance only was quite sufficient to make known to him instantly the whole difficulty.  There, in the bows, underneath the very place where the coil of rope had lain, was a huge aperture.  The planks had been beaten in, and one side of the bow was destroyed beyond hope of remedy.

The sight of such an irremediable calamity as this renewed for a time the despondency which he had felt at the first sinking of the boat.  Full of depression, he turned away, and tried to account for it all.  It was on the previous day that he had landed—­about twenty-four hours ago.  How had he passed the time since then, and what had happened?  This he tried to remember.

In the first place, up to the moment of landing the boat was perfectly sound, and far from all injury.  It had not been hurt during the drift.  It had struck at one place, but the long voyage that had followed showed that no damage had resulted.  Finally, it had not been harmed by landing on Quaco Ledge.  Since that time he had drifted in safety far across the bay, without meeting with any accident.  All this proved clearly that the damage must have been done to the boat since his landing on the island.

He found it very difficult to recall anything that had happened since then.  On his first arrival he was worn out and exhausted.  He remembered vaguely how he came in sight of the giant cliff, how he dragged the boat along, how he secured it to a tree, and then how he flung himself down on the grass and fell asleep.  After that all was obscure to his memory; but he could recall his waking at midnight and listening to the roar of the wind and the dash of the surf.  Evidently there must have been a heavier sea on the beach at that time than when he landed, and this was sufficient to account for the accident to the boat.  She had been beating on the rough rocks at high tide, exposed to the full sweep of the surf, and her bows had been stove in.

The melancholy spectacle of the ruined boat made Tom see that his stay on the island might be prolonged even beyond the following day.  No sooner had this thought occurred to him than he went over to the articles which he had taken out of the boat, and passed them all in review before him, as though he were anxious to know the full extent of his resources.  He spread out the wet sail in the sun.  He spread out his coat and waistcoat.  In the pocket of the latter he found a card of matches, which were a little damp.  These he seized eagerly and laid on the top of a stone, exposed to the rays of the sun, so as to dry them.  The clothes which he kept on were wet through, of course, but he allowed them to dry on him.