"Look here, fellers, it won't do for us to caper 'round here much longer, 'cause Bob'll be hoppin' mad if we ain't back soon to tell him whether there's a supply of water. We'll have plenty chances to come ashore before the Sea Bird is repaired, an' to steer clear of a row we'd better get to work."
Thus reminded of their duties, Harry and Walter assumed a business-like air, and under the direction of Jim set about exploring the key in a methodical manner.
Before proceeding more than fifty yards straight back from the cove the question of water was settled, at the same time that evidences of the men who had done them such grievous injury were found.
In the sand amid a thicket of palms was a spring whose clear, sparkling water bubbled up apparently through the solid rock, forming a tiny stream which flowed toward the east some distance and was then lost amid the dazzling sand. Near by the underbrush had been trampled down, while a quantity of embers told unmistakably that here the three men had camped several days.
"They wasn't very near starvin' if this was where they hung out," Jim said as he lifted from amid the foliage a small sack of yams and another half-filled with ship's-biscuit. "Here's enough to keep 'em alive longer'n they had any right to live, an' by the looks of them oyster-shells I should think it had been a reg'lar Thanksgivin' Day with 'em."
"All three ate as if they were hungry when they came aboard the brig," Harry suggested.
"That was to throw dust into Bob's eyes. Anyhow, these bags show as how the villains weren't left here by accident. If we could know all about the crowd I reckon we'd think ourselves lucky in gettin' rid of them with only the loss of the brig."
The thought of how they were tricked was one Harry did not care to entertain very long just at this time, when he had succeeded in partially banishing his great grief, and as a means of checking such conversation he said:
"I suppose we ought to go back and tell Bob there is plenty of water here."
"We've got time enough for that. Let's look 'round a little more, for I'd like to find out where them oysters came from," Jim replied; and Walter started at once through the thicket as if eager to hide from view this very unpleasant reminder of their enemies.