“I am hungry enough to eat a cold meal,” came quickly from Fred, who was already munching a cracker. “Come on, let’s take some of this stuff to Andy and that sailor. They’re just as starved as we are.”
With their hands full of good things, the three boys made their way to the top of the cabin, and soon the whole crowd were regaling themselves with the first meal they had eaten for several days. They broke open several cans of soup, and though the soup was cold, it tasted better to them than any meal they had ever eaten.
“I’ll tell you what—hunger is the great sauce,” declared Jack, as he munched his sixth cracker. “At home we’d probably turn up our noses at this, but here—wow!”
While they were eating they discussed the situation, but could arrive at no conclusion as to what would be their next best move.
“We can’t do much of anything, lads, until we have examined the ship,” declared Ira Small. “For all we know, she may be leakin’ so fast that she’s liable to go down at any time.”
“In that case, the best thing we can do is to put a supply of grub and water on the raft and make the raft as substantial as possible,” cried Andy.
“That wouldn’t be no bad idee, lad. That wreckage did us a mighty good turn. We kin lash all the timbers together with a few more ropes, an’ git some kind of a spar for a mast, an’ then hoist a sail if we have to leave the yacht. But examine the ship first—it might not be so bad after all.”
The thought that the steam yacht might go down suddenly filled the Rovers with a new dread, and in spite of the old tar’s last words, they decided to pack a lot of the ship’s stores in some sailcloth, the bundle being then hung over the side where it could be lowered to the wreckage without much trouble. Then they found a cask filled with drinking water, and placed this near the rail.
“Now if the worst comes to worst, we’ll have something to rely on,” declared Jack. “I don’t think she’ll go down so fast but what we’ll have time to get that stuff aboard the wreckage. Then we can take a lot of ropes along and other things and fix the raft up after we’ve shoved off.”
Having eased their minds about the food and the water, Jack, Randy and Fred continued their inspection of the yacht.