“And the first thing to do is to find Snake Island,” said Jerry, as they settled themselves comfortably in the airship cabin, after their start.
“Why, all we have to do is to sail along down in the canyon, and pick it out,” suggested Bob. “The canyon is miles wide—twenty in some places—so there will be room enough for us to get around.”
“Yes,” agreed Ned, who, with the others had been reading up some facts about the canyon. “But it isn’t always clear in the canyon. There are sudden storms, snow or rain, there are fogs—and you know you can’t see anything in a fog, even if you have an airship.”
“Oh, well, fogs don’t last forever,” declared Bob. “We’ll just have to keep on the lookout until we sight the island. Then we can lower ourselves, make a landing, get the radium, and come away, and——”
“You forget about the missing scientist,” suggested Ned.
“That’s so. Do you really think he’s there, Jerry?”
“Well, it’s hard to say. There’s just a chance that he landed on the island when the others were wrecked in their boat, and he may be there yet. It’s a chance worth taking. I understand that a lot of provisions were lost out of the boat, and they may have caught on the island, as they floated down. Then, too, there must be fish in the river at certain seasons of the year, and there may be birds, or some kind of animals on the island that would do for food.”
“It would be a sort of Robinson Crusoe way of living, but it might be possible. Of course it must be horribly lonely there, for one man alone on Snake Island,” said Ned.
“With all the snakes,” put in Bob.
“We don’t know that any snakes are there,” remarked Jerry. “That may be just a name.”