P ARTLY from the damping influence of this alarm,
partly to rest Silver and the sick folk, the whole
party sat down as soon as they had gained the
brow of the ascent.

The plateau being somewhat tilted toward the
west, this spot on which we had paused commanded
a wide prospect on either hand. Before us, over the
tree-tops, we beheld the Cape of the Woods fringed
with surf; behind, we not only looked down upon
the anchorage and Skeleton Island, but saw -- clear
across the spit and the eastern lowlands -- a great
field of open sea upon the east. Sheer above us rose
the Spy-glass, here dotted with single pines, there
black with precipices. There was no sound but that
of the distant breakers mounting from all around, and
the chirp of countless insects in the brush. Not a
man, not a sail upon the sea; the very largeness of
the view increased the sense of solitude.

Silver, as he sat, took certain bearings with his
compass.

"There are three 'tall trees,'" said he, "about in
the right line from Skeleton Island. 'Spy-glass

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