Mark did not disturb the happy security in which he found his people by any unnecessary announcement of danger.  On the contrary, he spoke cheerfully, complimented them on the advanced state of their work, and took an occasion to get Betts aside, when he first communicated the all-important discovery he had made.  Bob was dumbfounded at first; for, like the governor himself, he had believed the Reef to be one of the secret spots of the earth, and had never anticipated an invasion in that quarter.  Recovering himself, however, he was soon in a state of mind to consult intelligently and freely.

“Then we’re to expect the rep_tyles_ to-night?” said Betts, as soon as he had regained his voice.

“I think not,” answered Mark.  “The canoes I saw were in the false channel, and cannot possibly reach us without returning to the western margin of the rocks and entering one of the true passages.  I rather think this cannot be done before morning.  Daylight, indeed, may be absolutely necessary to them; and as the night promises to be dark, it is not easy to see how strangers can find their way to us, among the maze of passages they must meet.  By land, they cannot get here from any of the islands on the western side of the group; and even if landed on the central island, there is only one route, and that a crooked one, which will bring them here without the assistance of their canoes.  We are reasonably well fortified, Betts, through natural agencies, on that side; and I do not apprehend seeing anything more of the fellows until morning.”

“What a misfortin ’tis that they should ever have discovered the Reef!”

“It certainly is; and it is one, I confess, I had not expected.  But we must take things as they are, Betts, and do our duty.  Providence—­that all-seeing Power, which spared you and me when so many of our shipmates were called away with short notice—­Providence may still be pleased to look on us with favour.”

“That puts me in mind, Mr. Mark, of telling you something that I have lately l’arn’d from Jones, who was about a good deal among the savages, since his friend’s marriage with Peggy, and before he made his escape to join us.  Jones says that, as near as he can find out, about three years ago, a ship’s launch came into Betto’s Land, as we call it—­Waally’s Country, however, is meant; and that is a part of the group I never ventured into, seeing that my partic’lar friend, Ooroony, and Waally, was always at daggers drawn—­but a ship’s launch came in there, about three years since, with seven living men in it.  Jones could never get a sight of any of the men, for Waally is said to have kept them all hard at work for himself; but he got tolerable accounts of them, as well as of the boat in which they arrived.”

“Surely, Bob, you do not suppose that launch to have been ours, and those men to have been a part of our old crew!” exclaimed Mark, with a tumult of feeling he had not experienced since he had reason to think that Bridget was about to be restored to him.