The seaplane did not come back. The children sat and waited for the evening to come, when they might start. Jill yawned. "I must do something for the next two or three hours," she said, "or I shall fall asleep. I think I'll take the kettle and keep filling it with water at the spring, and bring it back to the boat. There's a big water-barrel there, and we could fill it with water."
"Good idea," said Andy. "You and Mary do that. I think I'll just wander up to the bush where we put the sail and see if it's still there. I don't think I've time to rig up some kind of a mast in this little boat so the sail won't be any good. But it might be useful to cover us with if it should happen to pour with rain."
The girls went off. Andy nodded to Tom, who was still looking gloomy, and went across the island to the bush where he had put the sail.
Tom was left alone, "They don't want me with them," thought the boy, quite wrongly. "They think I'm awful. I think I'm awful too! Oh, dear-if only I could get my camera."
He thought of the reef of rocks that led to the second island. It wasn't a bit of use trying to climb over them because the tide was getting high now.
But then he thought of the boat! It really wasn't a great distance to row to the cave, from the beach where he was. How pleased the others would be if he got back his camera!
The boy did not stop to think. He dragged the boat down the beach by himself, though he nearly pulled his arms out, doing it! He pushed it into the water and jumped in. He took the oars and began to row quickly round to the second island. He would land on the shore then, run quickly to the cave and get his camera.
"Then I'll be back here with it almost before the others know I'm gone!" he thought.
Nobody would have known what Tom had done if Andy had not happened to look round as he went over the little island to find the old sail. To his enormous astonishment he saw their boat being rowed away!
He could not see that the one in it was Tom, and for a moment he stood still, wondering what had happened. Was it another boat, not their own? He ran quickly to find out.