This last suggestion pleased the boys wonderfully and if Jake had not insisted very strongly that they sleep during the hottest portion of the day, both would have started into the forest without delay.
After lying down in the shade slumber came to their eyelids quickly, and when he was convinced they were across the border of dreamland, Jake arose softly, saying to himself as he stole up the shore:
"This goes ahead of any scrape I ever had the bad luck to fall into, an' I'd give all I've got to know exactly where we are, for I'm certain it ain't Cuba. If two days pass without our sightin' a sail I must fix up some story to make the boys eager to tramp across the country. That'll be better than stayin' here where, 'cordin' to my idea, there's mighty small chance of our finding anybody who can help us."
He walked along the shore fully two miles; but there was no diversity of scene. The coast strewn thickly with coral rocks, and backed by a dense forest, was all that could be seen either above or below the place where they landed.
Then Jake forced his way through the tangled undergrowth, experiencing no slight difficulty in so doing, and the vegetation confirmed his belief that the little craft had been carried by the wind to some land further south than was at first supposed.
On the water not a sail was in sight, and when Jake returned to the place where the rude shelter had been put up he was in even a more despondent mood than Teddy and Neal had been.
"I s'pose we must wait here a couple of days to satisfy the boys the other boats won't come, an' then it's a case of strikin' across the country with good chance of wanderin' around until fever or wild animals puts an end to it."
His companions were yet asleep, and he lay down beside them in order to prevent any suspicion that he had been spying out the land.
Under other circumstances the monotonous roar of the surf would have lulled him to rest; but now his anxiety was so great that, despite all efforts, his eyes would persist in staying open very wide, and he spent the remainder of the siesta trying in vain to decide what was best to do.
Not until late in the afternoon did the boys awaken, and then Neal said as he sprang to his feet: