"I can't do anything with it!" he exclaimed. "You'll have to wait until Ned comes if you can't start it yourself."
"It is my impression," said French, with a smile, "that your friend Ned is trussed up in a camp over on the other side of the island!"
"Then why don't you send for him, or for some one else to run the boat?" asked Frank innocently, his purpose being to induce French to send one of the guards away, and so reduce the force to be opposed.
"From out of the mouths of children," laughed French. "Well, you know the rest! I have an idea that you have solved the problem."
He talked in Spanish to one of the men for a moment, and the fellow rowed ashore in one of the canoes the captors had come in and set off through the jungle. The boys watched the thickets, hoping to see some sign of a struggle. They were sure that Ned would capture the guard, and so, possibly, delay the appearance of French's friends.
But all was quiet along the coast. Ned evidently had some other plan in mind. In a few moments French proposed breakfast and entered the cabin, relying on the guard to keep the boys out of mischief. As they had no weapons, he did not believe they would make any trouble. Besides, he kept a sharp lookout through the low, open doorway of the little cabin.
Then Frank became possessed of what Ned afterwards declared to be the one brilliant idea of his life! First he asked the guard if he could speak English.
"Understan' some; speak little," was the reply.
"Well," Frank went on, "I'm going to take my morning exercises. See if you have anything like this in your blooming land!"
"Bloomin' lan' Good! She bloom!"