“You did well, Terry, not to talk to him. I was scared stiff you’d fly out at him.”
“I probably would have if you hadn’t gripped my arm the way you did. Sometimes you spoil a good scrap that way. It might have done Joe Arnold good to know what people think about him.”
Suddenly a loud shriek broke the silence of the island. Terry and Prim clung together but the next minute Terry pointed with a smile to two brightly colored macaws above her head.
“Did you ever see anything as gay as those birds? Aren’t they beautiful!” exclaimed Terry.
“I’d like them better if they wouldn’t squawk so loudly,” said Prim. “I do believe they have scared me out of a year’s growth.”
The macaws shrieked again as if protesting at the intrusion of the girls. Other strange birds took up the challenge and answered until the air was filled with their noise.
“Let’s go!” said Terry with the faintest glimmer of a smile. “They don’t seem to appreciate the honor of our company.”
Hand in hand the girls climbed the ridge but kept out of sight of Joe’s camp. Below them and around a sharp point of rocky shore, they looked down over a forest of tropical trees, tall, slender stems and around the lower part of their trunks wound a thick tangle of vines.
“I wonder if we will ever get out of here alive, Terry?” whispered Prim in a strained voice. “You’ve read stories of people who were stranded on desert islands and lived there until they were old and ready to die.”
“Well, this wouldn’t be such a bad place to live,” answered Terry. “If we had the family here and a nice house and books and things.”