“We will try it.”
The six men waded into the stream and pressed their shoulders against the boat. Teddy’s first essay was accompanied by a slipping of the foot which left him fall flat upon his face, where he floundered some time before he regained his upright position.
The united effort of the half-dozen men failed to budge the craft. It was as heavy and had settled so firmly that it was absolutely immoveable unless by more strength than our friends had at their command. As Teddy remarked, the “owld critter had sat down to stay.”
“We can’t do anything with it,” said McGowan, “and that being the case, what shall we do with ourselves?”
“Get off the island as soon as possible,” replied young Smith.
“It is now so dark that I don’t suppose anything can be done before morning,” added McGowan.
“Take things easy,” said Teddy. “Don’t you see we’re safer here than we was on that owld mud-scar. We could go to the bottom of river wid that any time; but here we can sleep as sound as snorting tapple.”
“We may as well make ourselves comfortable like till morning,” added Napyank. “Fix up the women-folks, and we can take care of ourselves.”
The island was found to be larger than they had at first supposed. It was more than an eighth of a mile from one end to the other, thickly wooded, and covered with rank grass and a dense undergrowth. It was oval shaped, and very regular in its outline, being rather more than two hundred feet broad in its widest part.
“What a magnificent summer sate this would make for a gintleman like meself,” said Teddy, as the two stood in the shadow of a tree, on the lower part of the island.