It was late that night before the voyagers dropped into uneasy slumber. The wonder of their situation, suddenly brought home to them, had roused them all to unusual volubility. In the excitement consequent on the discovery of the massed wrecks even Jackson forgot his suspicions, and the three talked together freely. Howard had promised that they should join the wrecks, and they had done so. Now he would have a chance to keep his other promise to get them out; in the first flush of arrival they did not doubt that he would do so.
But Jackson, at least, changed his opinion the next morning when he came on deck and viewed the scene before him.
During the night the Queen, drawn by the same natural attraction that holds the planets in their sphere and brings floating chips together in a basin,
