"I thought so. Well, I own a three-thousand-ton steam yacht, barkentine rigged--the _Stephanie_--named after my daughter here. She will be due in San Francisco in two weeks. We are contemplating an extended cruise to the south seas. Have you ever been in steam, Mr. Gersey?"
"There’s a berth aboard her as bo’s’n, or fourth officer, for you, and I’ll ship every man here at double pay before the mast. You can pick one of them for bo’s’n’s mate. We’ve never had a bo’s’n on the yacht, but I’ve no doubt we can use one handily."
"Are you goin’ to hunt for Beekman, sir, I makes bold to ask," questioned the boatswain, his face shining.
"I’m going to search the seas until I find him, or what became of him, if possible; and, incidentally, Salver and the launch."
"We’re with you, howsomever long that cruise," said the boatswain. "Am I right, mates?"
"Right you are," came in deep-toned approval from the little group of sailors.
*"*_*Where there aren’t no Ten Commandments*_*"
*Derrick Beekman was astonished beyond measure at the apparition which flashed in view so suddenly far above his head and had almost immediately disappeared. So far as he had been able to view the island, he had not before discovered the slightest evidence of humanity. Indeed, the whole deep cup of the bay was so desolate and forbidding that it had not prepared him for human beings, scarcely for life, even. If he had not yet thought about it at all, he had, nevertheless, a subconsciousness that this was probably a bare and arid rock, volcanic in origin, which the busy little toilers of the sea had surrounded with a coral reef.
He came to believe afterward that this idea was correct, and that the deep bay represented one of the craters of the volcano, one side of which had been riven, by what cause he could not determine, giving access to the ocean. In his terribly weak condition, for when he had slaked his thirst, he was more acutely conscious of his hunger, not to say his starvation, than before, he could only reflect vaguely upon these matters. But one thing was really impressed upon his consciousness; namely, that he had seen a human being; that being was a woman, and that she was white!
He fell back on the sands supine, and lay staring upward. How long he lay there, he could not tell. He had been too amazed even to cry out, if he had possessed the power. And before he could decide upon anything, she was gone. He hoped, of course, that the woman or some of her companions, if she had any, would come again; but the dark, rugged, desolate rock cut the skyline with iron precision, unbroken by anything that had any suggestion of life, as before, when he had first looked upon it. He soon awoke to the realization that there was nothing to be gained by waiting. He must get something to eat to get back some of his strength before he explored the harbor to find a way to the top of the encircling cliffs.