"The yawl is gone!" the old sailor said grimly after a long pause, "an' that's all we need to know just now. How she went don't make very much difference; but I'd like to have that red-nosed man within reach of my fist about three minutes!"
This last misfortune seemed a most severe one in the boys' eyes, and for fully a quarter of an hour Jim was nearly speechless from excess of indignation and apprehension.
"It seems like we was never going to get clear of this island," he said in a whisper when Bob and Joe went forward thinking it might be possible to see the stolen boat. "I believe the pirates' gold has something to do with our bad luck, an' I wish we'd never found that letter."
"I don't see why you should feel out of sorts," Harry said in a sorrowful tone. "You were angry because we proposed to abandon the steamer, and now that it's impossible to get away you ought to be contented."
"Stayin' here without a boat to go ashore in is a different thing from bein' able to sail anywhere around the key," Jim replied, and then he relapsed into silence once more.
The conversation between Bob and Joe was no more satisfactory than that carried on by the boys. As a matter of course they had not been able to see the boat, which was now completely hidden in the shadow of the trees, and after straining their eyes in vain for some time the old sailor said, impatiently:
"What's the use of standin' here like fools when we know she's hauled up somewhere along the beach? We'll turn in, an' after sunrise try to think out another plan which will come to the same end this has!"
"I have a mind to swim ashore and settle matters now with those villains!" Joe said angrily.
"You would be the one to get settled, I reckon;" and Bob had so nearly recovered his composure as to laugh at the engineer's expense. "Both of us together wouldn't stand any show, more especially in the night, when they'd have all the advantage. Turn in with the boys, an' I'll stand watch till I'm sleepy."