“Baggage? Not much! We didn’t have no time for baggage when the ship went down. It was every man fer himself. The cap’n got off in one boat with some o’ the passengers, an’ the mate got off with some of the crew in another boat, an’ we got off by ourselves. It was blowin’ big guns, I can tell ye, an’ it looks like we would be swamped most every minit. I knowed about this island an’ I steered in this direction as well as I could, an’ by sheer good luck we struck the shore—an’ here we are.”
“What became of the other boats?”
“Ain’t seen nuthin’ of ’em yet.”
“Is that your boat was split in two, between the rocks in that direction?” and Dave pointed to where such a craft had been found by him and Roger.
“That’s her, messmate. Putty badly used up, eh?”
“And you are quite sure those two passengers had no baggage?” went on our hero, after a pause.
“Nary a thing, messmate, excepting wot they wore. It wasn’t no time to think o’ baggage, it was a time to think o’ what to do to save your life!”
CHAPTER XXII—THE HURRICANE
“What direction did those fellows who ran away take?” asked Dave.
“That’s the way they went,” answered one of the sailors, pointing to some heavy undergrowth behind the camping-out spot.