“From some passing steamer,” thought Andy. Then he saw that the label on the can was not yet loosened by the water. “It hasn’t been floatin’ long, though,” he added. “Looks as if some Englishman isn’t far away.”
Ahead of him the beach curved into what seemed to be a bay. The Pelican was high above the water, and there was no living thing in sight that might molest it. Glad of an opportunity to get some exercise, Andy began trotting along the beach. Far to the south, beyond a belt of reefs and smaller keys, he could just make out other lines of white,—other islands, no doubt, but nowhere was there a sail in sight.
“But I guess there’s someone nearby, and an Englishman at that,” speculated Andy. “Since he isn’t in sight, he must be in the cove behind the point.”
When the boy reached the turn in the shore, he was astounded to see just the opposite of the solitude in which he had alighted. At the bottom of the bay, where a group of cocoa palms hung almost over the water, the sight of a thatched hut met his eye. In front of it, and anchored several hundred yards out in the cove, was a trim schooner, her sails furled and a white awning covering her deck. Here and there over the wide bay were small boats, in each of which he could see two and sometimes three black men, naked to the waist.
“They’re divin’ for sponges or tongin’ ’em,” said Andy to himself as the old geography pictures came into his mind. Before he could feast his eyes further with the picture-like scene, he was startled to hear a voice. At the same moment a white man, in white duck and a Panama hat, stepped from the shade of the palms lining the beach.
“How’d do?” exclaimed the man in a decided English accent. “Did you just alight in an aeroplane?”
“You saw me?” exclaimed Andy.
“I was on my schooner and watched you for a long time with the glass. Come across from Florida?”
“Yes,” answered the boy. “What place is this?”
“One of the Grande Banks,” replied the stranger, “generally speaking. To be precise, you have your choice of several local names. Mine, for this, is Palm Tree Cove, I believe.”