“Did you save the pictures?” asked Andy.
“I got two of ’em. The rest got tore up an’ lost. The two are sewed up in a pocket o’ my shirt. Some day I’ll show ’em to you,” answered the old tar.
It was fascinating to speculate upon a pirates’ treasure, but just at present the boys felt that they must turn their attention to conditions as they now existed.
“I’m going to try to climb up one of those tall palm trees and take a look around,” announced Jack, a little later. “I’ve seen pictures of how the natives go up those trees, and I’m going to try the stunt.”
He took a stout rope, and, going to one of the trees, proceeded to pass the rope around his body under the arms and then around the tree, leaving a slack of about two feet. Then, barefooted as he was, he started to ascend the palm tree by grasping the bark with his toes and sliding the rope up from one point to another, bearing back on the rope from time to time to keep it from slipping.
Jack had read about this method of ascending a tree, and had even seen a moving picture of a native climbing in this fashion. It had looked easy enough in the picture, but he soon realized that ascending in this fashion was anything but easy. However, he was determined to get up, and after a prolonged effort managed to reach a point where he could look around for a considerable distance.
“What do you see?” called out Randy, eagerly.
“I don’t see much of anything,” was Jack’s answer. “We’re on an island. There isn’t any settlement, and not a ship of any kind is in sight.”