As they entered, the savory smell of broiled bacon came gratefully to their nostrils. The table was spread with delicious mealy potatoes, brown crusty bread, butter as yellow as gold, and clean, spotless plates.. If they had the power of wishing and gaining, they would have desired nothing better than this.
“Mr. O’Rafferty,” said Bart, suddenly, “I forgot to mention that we left one of our number on the beach. I will take a run across the island, with your permission, and bring him here, for he is as hungry as we are, if not more so.”
“Another one!” cried O’Rafferty. “An’ waitin’ on the beach! Why didn’t ye tell me before?”
“Well, you see we were tired with our scramble, and I wanted to get rested before starting back. But I’ll go now, if you’ve no objection.”
“Deed, thin, an’ I have an objection,” cried O’Rafferty. “D’ye think I’d let ye go starvin’ back agin before ye’d got a bite to ate? or, for that matter, d’ye think I’d let ye go at all? No; I’ll go meself.”
“You? O, no. I won’t allow that,” began Bart. “It’s meself ‘ll go, an’ nobody else,” cried O’Rafferty, positively. “Ye’r all too hungry an’ tired. Besides, ye don’t know a step of the way. Ye came through the woods, an’ a mighty tough job ye found it; but I know an aisier way—it’s a path of me own. Ye said it was at the other end of the island, on the other side.”
“Yes; at a rock with a tree on the edge.”
“I know the place well. My path comes out close by there. I wonder ye didn’t come across it.”
“It is a wonder. We certainly would have noticed anything like a path, if we had found one.”
“Well, it’s all the same now. Ye’ll jist stay here, an’ sit down an’ ate yer breakfasts like Christians, an’ I’ll go an’ bring the boy. Not one of ye shall stir a step—not one step.”