Max Pemberton

“ The better fare, however, conduced to general content, and when Burke had asked to be roused on the approach of any ship whatsoever, the four in the boat slept soundly, as men wasted with excitement and with fear.
During the early hours of the morning Fisher, who had perched himself upon a cranny high up in the reef, watched the rolling tide and the empty face of the bay. Flowing slowly, yet with fiercer swish of water in the gullies, the sea rose about the needles of black rock, beginning to flow again upon the bullion, and to wash in the reeking saloon. ”

“ When do you look for day?"
"I'm looking for it now," said Kenner; "you can't gainsay that there's light from the sun yonder."
He pointed to the higher headlands to the east of them, now beginning to shape in a cold steely light that passed slowly from hill to hill, and showed mist rising from the valleys. Dawn had come upon them as they worked, and as day spread upon the sea they began to realize that their haphazard method had not befriended them. ”

“ If this was the case with the gold, elsewhere in the fetid saloon the destruction was complete. The whole place reeked of damp and foulness; the fine upholstery was slime-hid and dripping; there was water gushing upon the floors. It was pitiable to see gaudy travelling bags with oozy mud upon them, and the little library of books washed to pulp; but for that the men had no eyes. ”