



Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England




Alone on an Island, by W.H.G. Kingston.

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ALONE ON AN ISLAND, BY W.H.G. KINGSTON.



CHAPTER ONE.

The _Wolf_, a letter-of-marque of twenty guns, commanded by Captain
Deason, sailing from Liverpool, lay becalmed on the glass-like surface
of the Pacific.  The sun struck down with intense heat on the dock,
compelling the crew to seek such shade as the bulwarks or sails
afforded.  Some were engaged in mending sails, twisting yarns, knotting,
splicing, or in similar occupations; others sat in groups between the
guns, talking together in low voices, or lay fast asleep out of sight in
the shade.  The officers listlessly paced the deck, or stood leaning
over the bulwarks, casting their eyes round the horizon in the hopes of
seeing signs of a coming breeze.  Their countenances betrayed ill-humour
and dissatisfaction; and if they spoke to each other, it was in gruff,
surly tones.  They had had a long course of ill luck, as they called it,
having taken no prizes of value.  The crew, too, had for some time
exhibited a discontented and mutinous spirit, which Captain Deason, from
his bad temper, was ill fitted to quell.  While he vexed and insulted
the officers, they bullied and tyrannised over the men.  The crew,
though often quarrelling among themselves, were united in the common
hatred to their superiors, till that little floating world became a
perfect pandemonium.

Among those who paced her deck, anxiously looking out for a breeze, was
Humphry Gurton, a fine lad of fifteen, who had joined the _Wolf_ as a
midshipman.  This was his first trip to sea.  He had intended to enter
the Navy, but just as he was about to do so his father, a merchant at
Liverpool, failed, and, broken-hearted at his losses, soon afterwards
died, leaving his wife and only son but scantily provided for.

Tenderly had that wife, though suffering herself from a fatal disease,
watched over him in his sickness, and Humphry had often sat by his
father's bedside while his mother was reading from God's Word, and
listened as with tender earnestness she explained the simple plan of
salvation to his father.  She had shown him from the Bible that all men
are by nature sinful, and incapable, by anything they can do, of making
themselves fit to enter a pure and holy heaven, however respectable or
excellent they may be in the sight of their fellow-men, and that the
only way the best of human beings can come to God is by imitating the
publican in the parable, and acknowledging themselves worthless, outcast
sinners, and seeking to be reconciled to Him according to the one way He
has appointed--through a living faith in the all-atoning sacrifice of
His dear Son.  Humphry had heard his father exclaim, "I believe that
Jesus died for me; O Lord, help my unbelief!  I have no merits of my
own; I trust to Him, and Him alone."  He had witnessed the joy which had
lighted up his mother's countenance as she pressed his father's hand,
and bending down, whispered, "We shall be parted but for a short time;
and, oh! may our loving Father grant that this our son may too be
brought to love the Saviour, and join us when he is summoned to leave
this world of pain and sorrow."

Humphry had felt very sad; and though he had wept when his father's eyes
were closed in death, and his mother had pressed him--now the only being
on earth for whom she desired to live--to her heart, yet the impression
he had received had soon worn off.

In a few months after his father died, she too was taken from him, and
Humphry was left an orphan.

The kind and pious minister, Mr Faithful, who frequently visited Mrs
Gurton during the last weeks of her illness, had promised her to watch
over her boy, but he had no legal power.  Humphry's guardian was a
worldly man, and finding that there was but a very small sum for his
support, was annoyed at the task imposed on him.

Humphry had expressed his wish to go to sea.  A lad whose acquaintance
he had lately made, Tom Matcham, was just about to join the _Wolf_, and,
persuading him that they should