After a careful survey of the surroundings, Jack came down from the tree and told the others the details of what he had seen.
“The island looks to be about a mile long and not quite half a mile wide,” he said. “The western end is mostly rocky and extends out into the ocean for a considerable distance. Looks to me as if it might be of volcanic origin, like we have studied about in school. Over to the eastern end of the island is that little bay, and there the jungle is very dense. There are more rocks at the far eastern end of the island, some quite tall.”
“And you didn’t see anything at all in the way of a settlement or a place where boats might land?” questioned Randy.
“Not a thing! It looks to me as if this island had never been visited.”
“Oh, I reckon these islands are all visited once in a while,” remarked Ira Small. “The natives come in their long boats to see what they can pick up. But we might have to wait a good many months before any one would come here to take us off.”
“And it doesn’t look as if we could build a boat ourselves—not with the material we have,” answered Jack, with a sigh.
“Then it looks as if we might be booked to stay here quite a while,” remarked Randy. “Oh, dear, I wonder what the folks at home will think!” he went on soberly.
“They’ll think we have all been lost at sea,” answered Fred.
“They will unless those aboard the Hildegarde tell how we escaped in the motor boat.”
“Those rascals won’t open their mouths about that,” answered Andy. “And even if they did,” he went on, “they’d most likely think the motor boat was lost in the hurricane.”