Page:The Swiss Family Robinson (Kingston).djvu/183

 the boys I was going ashore earlier than usual, and calmly desired them to get into the boat. Then lighting a match I had prepared, and which would burn some time before reaching the powder, I hastened after them with a beating heart, and we made for the land.

We brought the raft close in shore and began to unload it; the other boat I did not haul up, but kept her ready to put off at a moment's notice; my anxiety was unobserved by anyone, as I listened with strained nerves for the expected sound. It came!—a flash! a mighty roar—a grand burst of smoke!

My wife and children, terror-stricken, turned their eyes towards the sea, whence the startling noise came, and then in fear and wonder, looked to me for some explanation. “Perhaps,” said the mother, as I did not speak, “perhaps you have left a light burning near some of the gunpowder, and an explosion has taken place.”

“Not at all unlikely,” replied I quietly; “we had a fire below when we were caulking the seams of the pinnace. I shall go off at once and see what has happened. Will any one come?”

The boys needed no second invitation, but sprang into the boat, while I lingered to re-assure my wife by whispering a few words of explanation, and then joining them, we pulled for the wreck at a more rapid rate than we ever had done before.

No alteration had taken place in the side at which we usually boarded her, and we pulled round to the further side, where a marvellous sight awaited us. A huge rent appeared, the decks and bulwarks were torn open, the water was covered with floating wreckage—all seemed in ruins; and the compartment where the pinnace rested was fully revealed to view. There sat the little beauty, to all appearance uninjured; and the boys, whose attention was taken up with the melancholy scene of ruin and confusion around them, were astonished to hear me shout in enthusiastic delight: “Hurrah! she is ours! The lovely pinnace