hold. Many of them, containing spirits, ale, or wine, had been stove while the yacht was being dashed about on the reef. But there were still a hundred gallons of claret and sherry, fifty gallons of gin, brandy, and whisky, and forty hogsheads of ale, besides thirty bottles of different liqueurs in straw envelopes which had not been broken.
So that for some time at least, the fifteen survivors of the schooner were in no fear of starvation. It remained to be seen if the country would yield anything to allow of their provisions being economized. If it was an island on which the storm had thrown them, they could hardly hope to get away from it, unless a ship were to appear and make out their signals. To repair the yacht and make good the damage to the hull, would be a task beyond their power, and require tools they did not possess. To build a new boat out of the ruins of the old one did not enter their minds; and as they knew nothing of navigation, how were they to cross the Pacific to get back to New Zealand? In the schooner's boats, they might have got away, perhaps; but the boats had gone, except the yawl, and that at the outside was only fit for sailing along the coast.
About noon, the youngsters, headed by Moko, returned. They had after a time quieted down and set seriously to work, and they had brought back a good store of shellfish, which the cabin-boy undertook to get ready. As to eggs, there ought to be a great quantity, for Moko had noted the presence of innumerable rock pigeons of an edible kind nestling on the higher ledges of the cliff.
"That is all right," said Briant. "One of these mornings we will go out after them, and get a lot."
"We are sure to do that," said Moko. "Three or four shots will give us pigeons by the dozen. It will be easy to get to the nests if we let ourselves down with a rope."
