To his disappointment there were no signs of inhabitants; but it might be possible a village was located further up on the shore, and he made his way along the beach, halting at every sound in the thicket, fearing his old enemies might be in pursuit.
During the first hour he saw nothing to encourage, save it might be in the thousands of oysters which were spread out on the beach, a goodly portion of which had been opened, not naturally, but with the aid of a little stone placed between the shells.
Philip knew that this must be a favorite feeding-ground for such inhabitants of the island as he had already met. Oysters are a luxury to the entire monkey tribe, who succeed in procuring the bivalves by a variety of cunning means, the most common of which is to throw a stone between the shells when the oyster chances to be open. In this manner they are sure of their prey without having to run the risk of getting their paws or muzzles caught in the powerful grip of the shell-fish.
Some monkeys, as Philip knew from what he had read on the subject, particularly those of Burmah, open the oyster with a stone by striking the base of the upper valve until it dislocates or breaks, and then extract the meat with their fingers, occasionally putting the shell straight to their mouths.
The necessity of observing and understanding every object in his path, for the purpose of learning as much as possible concerning the island, caused the traveler to scan these shells carefully. The fact that monkeys are adept oyster-openers had no interest for him, save as it was the means of showing that human beings had not visited this portion of the shore; therefore he understood it would be necessary to look elsewhere for aid.
CHAPTER VIII.
A PERILOUS PREDICAMENT.
Not having had guavas sufficient for anything more than the lightest kind of a light lunch, the shipwrecked youth searched among the shells for oysters. It was a laborious way of earning a dinner, since the monkeys had cleaned out the meats pretty thoroughly, and an hour’s hard work did not reward him with more than a dozen of the tiny bivalves.