“There’s no use standing here any longer,” he said aloud after one more glance at the faint shadow which marked the brig’s position. “If I don’t start it’ll soon be dark, an’ then there would be trouble, for a fellow can’t find his way around a strange island very well when it’s impossible to see anything. It seems kinder queer that I was so sick it wasn’t safe for me to stay aboard the Evening Star, an’ yet the captain thought it was all right for me to walk a couple of miles when it’s hot enough to melt the boots off a fellow’s feet!”
Then, with his eyes fixed on what appeared to be a clump of trees, in order that he might be certain of traveling in a direct course, Ned set out, trudging along resolutely, regardless of the heat, which brought the perspiration from his face in tiny streams.
The hard lessons of life which Ned had already received stood him in good stead now. Without them he might have weakened before this, the first of many troubles yet to come; but he had known a number of instances where a good deal more labor than that of walking two miles had been required of him, with no prospect of a reward when the task was finished, and the question of fatigue hardly entered his thoughts.
He believed he should soon arrive at a village where he would be hospitably received as soon as he informed the inhabitants that he had been set ashore because of suffering from leprosy, therefore the thought of what he would soon enjoy served to pass the time more rapidly.
After half an hour’s steady walking he saw that the point toward which he had been making his way was indeed a clump of trees.
The grove was situated at the head of a small bay which made in on the western side of the island, and here the vegetation was almost luxuriant.
Trees covered an extent of land fully half a mile square, and sloping down from the higher portions of the island to the water’s edge were bushes and small plants in profusion.
To a fellow who wanted to “camp out” where he would be free from intrusion, it was a beautiful place; but to one in Ned’s situation, who hoped to see houses as a sort of guarantee that he might find something to eat, it was not cheering.
“I reckon the village is on the other side of the grove,” he said to himself. “If I’d known where to look for it in the first place I might have saved quite a long walk.”
He was beginning to grow tired, and the heat had caused such a thirst that water seemed an absolute necessity.