Shells of all sizes and of strange shapes and lovely pastel colours strewed the beach. Occasionally I ccume across the tracks of a huge turtle where he had made his way from the sea and up across the soft sand to feed on the green grasses, Dut did not come across one of the creatures) much as T should Mked to.
Haltway bock to the pier 1 came ross what had evidently been small clearing in the bushes, Going up to it T saw a row of low mounds, each about eight feet Tong and three feet wide. At the: h them were weather. which T could just characters (or were they Japanese?) Here, in this most desolate of spots, were laid to rest the weary bones of some of the adventurers, Further along I was very surprised when T's ree dog. "He trotted out of the bushes a couple of hund~ red yards ahead of me, stood at gaze for a moment and then trotted back into the tangle of shrubs qnd grass and was gone. Had T been. dreaming? No. When 1 came to the spot there were his tracks in the sand. Poor chap, I thought. He must hat been left' behind by the last people who had been there, How long had he been there all alone and did he come down to the beach sometimes to gaze wistfully out to seaward waiting for his mas ter to come back? called and whistled to him but got no response, He was probably crouching in the bushes watching me warily, wondering whether I were friend or foe. Indeed he would have found me friend had he ventured to come to me.
At last T came back to the pier and, clambering up onto it again, made my way out to the end, the birds swirling and screeching round my head. Perhaps they were sorry to see me go $0 soon.
Getting back into the boat 1 was rowed out to the ship to find Captain Ransom leaning over the ral), "I was just about to whistle for, you" he called down to me. "Me+ Lood has finished and 1 want to get away, into open water before it gets dark?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.