It had taken a long time, and when at last the work was done, it began to grow dark.  Tom noticed this with surprise.  He had been working so incessantly that he was not mindful of the flight of time, and now the day was done, and the evening was upon him before he was aware.  But there were other things still for him to do before he could rest from his labors.  His fire was just flickering around its last embers, and if he wished to have a pleasant light to cheer the solitude and the darkness of his evening hours, it would be necessary to prepare a supply of fuel.  To this he attended at once, and brought up several armfuls of drift-wood from the beach.  Placing these near the fire, he kindled it up afresh, and flung upon the rising flames a generous supply of fuel.  The fires caught at it, and crackled as they spread through the dry wood, and tossed up their forked tongues on high, till in the dusk of evening they illuminated the surrounding scene with a pleasant light.  A few more armfuls were added, and then the work for the day was over.  That work had been very extensive and very important.  It had secured a means of communication with the outer world, and had also formed a shelter from the chill night air, the fog, and the storm.  It was with a very natural pride that Tom cast his eyes around, and surveyed the results of his ingenuity and his industry.

The camp opened towards the fire, from which it was not so far distant but that Tom could attend to it without any very great inconvenience.  The fire shone pleasantly before him as he sat down at his evening repast.  As the darkness increased, it threw a ruddier glow upon all the scene around, lighting up field and hill, and sending long streams of radiance into the fog that overhung the sea.  Tom had prepared an unusually large supply of fuel, this evening, for the express purpose of burning it all up; partly for his own amusement, and partly in the hope that it might meet the eyes of some passing navigator.  It was his only hope.  To keep his signals going by night and day was the surest plan of effecting a speedy escape.  Who could tell what might be out on the neighboring sea?  How did he know but that the Antelope might be somewhere near at hand, with his companions on board, cruising anxiously about in search after the missing boat?  He never ceased to think that they were following after him somewhere, and to believe that, in the course of their wanderings, they might come somewhere within sight of him.  He knew that they would never give him up till they assuredly knew his fate, but would follow after him, and set other vessels on the search, till the whole bay, with all its shores and islands, should be thoroughly ransacked.

Fortunate was it for him, he thought, that there was so large a supply of drift-wood at hand on the beach, dry, portable, and in every way convenient for use.  Thanks to this, he might now disperse the gloom of dark and foggy nights, and keep up a better signal in the dark than he could do in the light.  Thus the fuel was heaped on, and the fire flamed up, and Tom sat near, looking complacently upon the brilliant glow.