MARTIN RATTLER. 55

stellations revealed to them dimly the appearance of
the coast. It was a low sandy beach skirting the sea
and extending back for about a quarter of a mile in
the form of a grassy plain, dotted here and there with
scrubby underwood. Beyond this was a dark line of
forest. The light was not sufficient to enable them
to ascertain the appearance of the interior. Barney
and Martin now cast about in their minds how they
were to spend the night.

“ Ye see,” said the Irishman, “it’s of no use goin’
to look for houses, because there’s maybe none at all
on this coast; an’ there’s no sayin’ but we may fall
in with savages—for them parts swarms with them;
so we'd better go into the woods an’-—”

Barney was interrupted here by a low howl, which
proceeded from the woods referred to, and was most
unlike any ery they had ever heard before.

“Och, but I'll think better of it. Paps it'll be
as well not to go into the woods, but to camp where
we are,”

“T think so too,” said Martin, searching about for
small twigs and drift-wood with which to make a
fire. “There is no saying what sort of wild beasts
may be in the forest, so we had better wait till day-
light.”

A fire was quickly lighted by means of the pistol-