Robert laid himself flat on the sand, rested the glass upon a log of wood, that both he and it might be steady, and said, "Now fire!" About a quarter of a minute after the discharge he exclaimed, "I see him! He is lying upon the sand beneath the shade of a cedar. I see him move. He rests on one arm, as though he were sick or hurt. Now he drags himself as you describe, sister. There is his flag flying again. He uses only one arm. The other hangs down uselessly by his side. Who can it be? I wish he was in the sunshine, for then I could see his complexion. But I am sure it is not a white man."
"O, it is Riley!" said Frank. "I know it is Riley come after us. Now we can go home again."
Harold took the glass and used it as Robert had done. The person had by this time put down the flag, and was reclining languidly against some support behind him. Harold saw him grasp his left arm with his right hand, move it gently, and lie back as before. "That person is badly hurt," he remarked. "Instead of helping us, he wants us to help him. It must be some one who was cast away in the storm last night. Oh, for our boat! Robert, we must go over and help him. We can make a raft. It is not three miles across. We have the oars and paddle of our boat, and we can surely make that distance and back this evening, by hard work. Let us see if there is not timber enough near at hand for a raft."
They looked at a fallen tree not far distant, and wished it were only near the river bank. "But what do I say?" said Robert. "The palmetto, which I felled for the cabbage, is sixty or seventy feet long, straight as an arrow, and what is better, just at the river side."
Off they went with ax, hatchet, and nails. Mary called after them to say, that if they would show her the way, she and Frank would follow them with something to eat.
"Do, cousin, if you please," said Harold. "I, for one, am hungry enough. We will blaze a path for you as we pass along. Do follow us soon."
"Do you mean that you will chop the trees as you pass?"
"Yes, yes. We will chop them so as to show the white wood beneath the bark. That is called a blaze. You cannot mistake your way."
The work of blazing the path scarcely detained them at all; an experienced woodsman can do it with a single blow of his ax as he moves, without stopping. Many of the trees were cut so as to show little more than the mark of the hatchet. Coming to the fallen palmetto, the boys cut it into four lengths, one of twenty, two of seventeen, and the remainder of ten feet long. It was easy work; the palmetto is a soft wood, and every blow of the ax, after going beneath the hard surface, made a deep cut. Then with the aid of levers, they rolled the logs to the water's edge; they pinned them together, sharpened the bow for a cutwater, and fastened some cross pieces on top for seats, and as receptacles for the thowl pins.
While thus engaged, Mary and Frank, guided by the blazed trees, and attracted by the sound of the ax, came with a basket full of provision, and setting it before them, remarked, "I am sorry we have no water yet to offer you, but here are some of the oranges we brought the other day."