“Oh, tell me, please, where are they?” begged Jack - and at that moment a man’s voice said:
“Who’s this asking for me? What do you want, boy?”
Jack swung round. He saw a tall, brown-faced man looking down at him, and he liked him at once, because he was so like Mike to look at.
“Captain Arnold! I know where Mike and Peggy and Nora are!” he cried.
The Captain stared as if he had not heard aright. Then he took Jack’s arm and pulled him upstairs into a room where a lady sat, writing a letter. Jack could see she was the children’s mother, for she had a look of Peggy and Nora about her. She looked kind and strong and wise, and Jack wished very much that she was his mother, too.
“This boy says he knows where the children are, Mary,” said the Captain.
What excitement there was then! Jack poured out his story and the two grown-ups listened without saying a word. When he had finished, the Captain shook hands with Jack, and his wife gave him a hug.
“You’re a fine friend for our children to have!” said the Captain, his face shining with excitement. “And you really mean to say that you have all been living together on that little island and nobody has found you?”
“Yes,” said Jack, “and oh, sir, is it true that you and Mrs. Arnold have been living on an island, too, till a ship picked you up?”
“Quite true,” said Captain Arnold, with a laugh. “Our ’plane came down and smashed - and there we were, lost on an island in the Pacific Ocean! Little did we know that our children were going to live alone on an island, too! This sort of thing must be in the family!”