“All I can say is that he must have been a mighty strong man to pack all that stuff away with him in one trip,” remarked Joe.
“That’s right, too,” agreed Biff. “I never thought of that. Perhaps the supplies are around this island yet. We’ll take another look this afternoon.”
For the present, however, their immediate interest was the long-delayed breakfast which Chet was enthusiastically preparing. He soon had bacon and eggs, bread, coffee and jam on the table, and the lads attacked the meal with gusto. Eventually their hearty appetites were appeased.
“What now?” asked Joe.
“I think we ought to spend the rest of the day exploring the island,” Frank suggested. “We haven’t really looked the place over yet and we might just chance to run across those supplies.”
The others agreed that his plan was good, so they donned their coats and caps and set about a systematic search of the island.
Frank, in charge of the hunt, outlined a plan of procedure.
“We’ll figure it this way,” he said. “Suppose we were coming to this cabin to steal those supplies, with the idea of hiding them. Where could we go? There are only certain directions we could go without ending up at a cliff or without finding ourselves in the deep snow at the top of the island. We’ll try to put ourselves in the thief’s place.”
“If it were I,” said Joe, “I’d make right for that clump of trees over to the left. Those supplies were heavy. The thief wouldn’t want to carry them very far, yet he would want a good hiding place.”
“That’s right,” agreed the others.