A glorious sunrise broke across the ocean, lifting the island peaks to the north into a sheen of purple-rose and gold. Dennis wakened to it—he had gone to sleep stretched out upon a blanket on the quarter-deck—with a thrill of sheer delight in the golden splendour overhead; then he realized that the steward¹ was calling him, and he leaped up.  
The Pelican² with her canvas all housed, had been but little influenced by the breeze from the north-west. She had made leeway, drifting a couple of miles from her late anchorage; having no glasses at hand, Dennis could not tell whether the Jap ship still lay by the island or not.
 
"There's a boat tacking³ down to us, sir!" rang out the steward's voice from forward.
 
Dennis glimpsed her at once, and saw that she must be a fishing-boat—a sturdy, bluff⁴ little craft which seemed to carry but two people, As he looked, he saw her brown canvas flutter down; she was coming from the north-east, and when her canvas was stowed she headed directly for the Pelican.
 
"Got a motor, eh?" reflected Dennis.
 
He swung down the companion way and located the binoculars⁵ of the skipper. With these he returned to the deck. Caring less about the fishing-boat than about conditions at the island, he picked up the latter point first; the steward had joined him and stood waiting for disclosures.
 
There was no ship in sight, much to the surprise of Dennis. Nor could he make out any sign of life upon the rocky crags of the island itself. About a mile distant from the brigantine he located a boat floating bottom-side up. It was a whaleboat, and as it swung around with the seas Dennis made out the figure two painted at its bows.
 
"That's the boat Mr. Leman took last night, blime if it ain't!" ejaculated the steward, upon learning its number from Dennis. "Nothin' else in sight sir?"
 
"No—hold on!" Dennis caught something adrift toward the north end of the island. "By thunder, there's another boat—she seems to be standing⁶ out this way. There's someone aboard her; they're getting up a sail. Seems to be only two or three of them——"
 
"That fishin boat is 'eading this w'y, sir," broke in the steward. "Shall I pass 'er?"
 
"By all means," responded Dennis, and turned his glasses toward the craft.
 
Amazement⁷ thrilled within him—amazement, and startled unbelief. One figure aboard her was huddled⁸ over the engine amidships and could not be discerned; but in the stern, wonder of wonders, sat Florence!
 
There could be no mistake about it. She was heavily wrapped in fur robes, but Dennis saw her face sharply and distinctly—her pale eager features, her brown eyes fastened upon the whaler, her fur-gloved hand upon the tiller of the boat. With a wild yell of delight Tom Dennis leaped up, waving his arms, and he saw Florence wave back response.
 
"It's my wife, steward—hurrah!" Dennis ran forward to aid the Cockney. "She must have come all the way from Unalaska in that boat! Here, get your line ready by the diver's ladder in the waist; it'll be an easy climb there. Great glory, what a surprise!"
 
"Yes, sir," returned the steward, adding: "And werry lucky hit is, sir, as she didn't get 'ere larst night!"
 
"You bet," said Dennis devoutly⁹. "Thank Heaven for the fog—it must have prevented their trying to make the island!"
 
 
 
As the fishing craft drew in toward the whaler, Dennis recognized the man at her engine—it was the same grizzled fisherman whom he had hired to pick up Jerry. The fisherman shut off his engine and came in to the bow to receive the line which the steward flung; the boat drew in beside the drifting Pelican. Florence, rising stiffly, was aided to the ladder by her bronzed helper, and a moment later Dennis held her in his arms.
 
"What on earth!" he exclaimed, as she broke into mingled¹⁰ tears and laughter. "What brought you here, dearest?"
 
"You, Tom!" she exclaimed. "Jerry told us that they meant to send you down in a diving-suit and—and—oh, I'm glad we're not too late! Captain Nickers has been a darling, Tom——"
 
Dennis shook hands with the fisherman, who grinned and eyed the ship.
 
"Looks kind o' fussed up, don't she?" said Nickers. "Where's everybody?"
 
Florence glanced around quickly. "Oh! Where are they, Tom? Quick, you must get away——"
 
"Take it easy," said Dennis, and pointed¹¹ to the whaleboat standing down the wind toward them. "Where they are, I don't know! Lots of things have happened. So you came all this way to give me warning?"
 
"You bet," said Nickers. "Say, Dennis, if I had a wife like you have—by gum, I'd give a million dollars! That run over here ain't no cinch for a lady, let me tell you; but she stood watch an' watch with me like an old hand—well, she's a wonder!"
 
"We had to," Florence laughed, flushing under the ardent¹² words of grizzled old Nickers. "I was terribly afraid for you, Tom, and there was no one else we could get—but tell us, what's happened?"
 
Dennis glanced at the approaching boat and saw that she would not reach them for ten minutes. So, dispatching the steward to make ready some coffee, he gave Florence and Nickers a brief outline of the situation, making light of his own peril¹³.
 
"Where the Japs are," he concluded, "I've not the faintest idea. And I can't figure out what happened last night—where Pontifex and the others went. I don't believe he blew up the Jap ship, for I can't see any signs of wreckings except Mr. Leman's boat. Well, here's this boat coming in. What's that in her stern, Nickers?"
 
Having dropped his glasses in the excitement of getting Florence aboard Dennis could make out only that the approaching whaleboat was manned by three Kanakas of the Pelican's crew, but in her stern was a queer shapeless mass that looked strangely terrible. Across the thwarts¹⁴ forward lay two silent brown figure............