The captain and Dr. Wise were very much interested in the report that the boys brought back from their walk through the woods, and to the top of the hill in the interior of the island.
"If there are people here they know how to get out through the reefs," observed the principal, "for they must have come here once, and no doubt are in communication with the people outside."
"They may have lived here all their lives," returned the captain. "I never saw any one on these islands, natives, I mean, that knew very much. We can't tell how long they have lived here, they and their ancestors, of course, and these fellows probably don't know when they came, and don't suppose there is any other place in the world."
"H'm! that does not speak for a very high state of intelligence," remarked the doctor with a grunt.
"You won't find it in these natives nor even in the half breeds, sir," the captain returned. "The rating is pretty low. It'll be interesting to see these people, but I don't think that you will find them very intelligent. You'd better not expect too much."
The next day there was nothing to be seen of the wreck, and when Jack and Percival went to the wooded point to look for the place where they had descended when they first found it, there was nothing but a great hole into which the sea poured, and made a great disturbance at every tide.
"That's the last of that," said Jack. "No one would believe us if we told them we had gone down there and found a vessel fast in the rocks."
"But we know we did, for we have the evidences of it, and you are at least a couple of thousand dollars richer by it. That will help you a lot in getting your education, my boy, and give your mother something as well."
"Yes, and she is the first one to be considered," said Jack.
There had been no answers as yet to the captain's wireless messages, and that day he sent out another one, this time to the owners of the vessel in New York, addressing Mr. Smith in particular, thereby hoping to receive attention.