“Keep it awake, then, not only now, but always.”
“All right, sir. What are we going to collect, then?”
“Well, it is tempting to try and find some more pearls.”
“Yes, very; but I say, doctor, oughtn’t we to—I don’t want to go yet, for there’s so much to see here—but oughtn’t we to try and do something about going on to Moreton Bay?”
“Ha!” ejaculated the doctor. “I’ve lain awake night after night thinking about that, my lad, but I always came to one conclusion.”
“What’s that?” asked the boy, eagerly.
“That we are perfectly helpless. I don’t think we could construct a boat sufficiently seaworthy to warrant our attempting a voyage in her. There is plenty of material if we tore up the deck or the boards from below, and of course Bostock is very handy; but I am wanting in faith as to his making us a large enough boat.”
“Why not a bigger raft?”
“My dear boy, we should be washed off in the first rough sea. Besides, a raft would be perfectly unmanageable in the fierce currents. We might be stranded on the mainland, but more probably we should be drifted out to sea. Either there or ashore we should perish from want of food. I am not wanting in enterprise, Carey, my lad, and it is terrible in spite of the beauty of the place to be stranded here; but I think our course, surrounded as we are with every necessary of life, is to wait patiently and see what may turn up. There is the possibility that some of the Chusan’s boats may get to one of the western ports or be picked up by a vessel, and in time, no doubt, the agents of the company will send a steamer round the coast to see if there are any traces of their great vessel. I believe we have a large sum in gold stowed somewhere below.”
“No fear of our taking any of it to spend,” said Carey, laughing. “I say, then, you think we ought to settle down quietly, not bother about building a boat, and make the best of it.”