of them, lying be- 
tween the land and the dusky object which they knew 
to be Battle Island. 

Very still and weird was this place in the dark of 
the morning, with the cold air from the sea stirring in 
the brushwood overhead, and with the ceaseless plash 
of the waves echoing all along the solitary coast. A faint 
film of cloud had come over the sky and hid the stars ; but 
in the east there seemed to be a pale wan gray, far ever 
the dark water towards Ardlamont Point. And, by and 
by, as they sat on the cold rocks, and waited, there became 
visible, whence it had come no one could say, a brilliant 
planet, burning like gold in the gray mist above the 
eastern sea, and they knew that it was the star of the 
morning. Very slowly the gray light grew ; very slowly 
the dark outline of Battle Island became more defined ; 
and the black hollows of the waves that came in towards 
the shore had now a pale hue between them, that scarcely 
could be called light. 

Patiently they waited, scanning the outline of the is- 
land rocks, and watching all the water around for the 
rolling of the seals. There was no sign of life. Perhaps 
the gray in the east was waxing stronger, it