After a quiet Sunday on the island Jack and Randy made their way on Monday morning to the little bay and there constructed a raft out of the wreckage that had drifted into the opening. Then, with their shoes slung around their necks and their socks in their pockets, they set off for the opposite shore of the bay, using two pieces of boards for sculls.
“We may find nothing over there to interest us,” said Jack. “Just the same, it won’t hurt to go over. Perhaps we can find some sort of a trail to the south side of the island.”
As the water was calm, it did not take the boys long to reach the other side of the little bay. Here they found a spot where landing was easy and tied up the raft so that it might not float away. Then, putting on their socks and shoes again, they continued their explorations.
They soon found that progress in this direction was almost as difficult as it had been in the vicinity of their first camp. The jungle was a mass of tangled undergrowth and heavy vines, with here and there some fair-sized palm trees. A little further on they came to a series of rocks which seemed to bar their further progress in that direction.
“We don’t seem to be getting anywhere, Jack,” remarked Randy, as he stopped to catch his breath and wipe the perspiration from his brow. “Gee! this doesn’t seem to be like December weather, does it?”
“Well, you must remember we’re pretty well south,” was the young major’s answer. “What do you think we’d better do—go back?”
“Let’s move along the base of the rocks. Maybe we’ll find some sort of an opening. I’d like very much to get to the south shore of the island, just to find out what is there.”
Once more they went on, advancing with care for fear of slipping and perhaps spraining an ankle. They had a hatchet with them, and often had to cut the brushwood and the vines, to make a passage for themselves.
“There is one thing we want to remember,” said Jack, suddenly. “And that is that we’ve got to get back. We don’t want to lose our way.”
“I guess not!” exclaimed his cousin. “Why, if we lost our way in this jungle we might never get out. We’d have to climb a tree or some of those rocks just to locate ourselves.”