T HIS fifth trip was quite different from any of the
others. In the first place, the little gallipot of a
boat that we were in was gravely overloaded.
Five grown men, and three of them -- Trelawney, Red-
ruth, and the captain -- over six feet high, was already
more than she was meant to carry. Add to that the
powder, pork, and the bread-bags. The gunwale was
lipping astern. Several times we shipped a little
water, and my breeches and the tails of my coat
were all soaking wet before we had gone a hundred
yards.

The captain made us trim the boat, and we got
her to lie a little more evenly. All the same, we were
afraid to breathe.

In the second place, the ebb was now making -- a
strong, rippling current running westward through
the basin, and then south'ard and seaward down the
straits by which we had entered in the morning.
Even the ripples were a danger to our overloaded
craft, but the worst of it was that we were swept out
of our true course, and away from our landing-place
behind the point. If we let the current have its way

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