He had no difficulty in enticing the feathered visitors to an examination of his bait, but they refused in the most provoking manner to alight long enough for him to fasten the string around their legs, and he was forced to relinquish this method of replenishing his larder.
“You’ve beaten me this time,” he said with a laugh; “but just wait awhile till I rig up another kind of a trap, and we’ll see who comes out best.”
The next most pleasing method of passing the hours seemed to be by an examination of what he had already begun to call “his farm,” and he set out intending to make a full exploration in two days, going half-way around on each excursion.
“If I only had a dog I believe this would be a jolly sort of a place in which to live for a month or so,” he said aloud, as if there was a certain sense of companionship in the sound of his own voice. “It’s goin’ to be mighty lonesome after awhile.”
He had started on his exploring trip by following the same course taken when he was searching for the supposed village; but on this occasion he walked nearer the water’s edge and kept a sharp lookout for anything which might serve as food.
A few yards from the edge of the grove he found a portion of the coral not covered by the sand, and on this was a fine white powder which he tasted of eagerly.
“It’s real salt!” he exclaimed in surprise and delight. “I reckon the sea-water has washed up on it, an’ then the sun has dried the salt out. That’s the way I’ve heard Deacon Grout say some folks found it.”
As may be supposed, he was careful to gather up the small amount which had been prepared by the elements, and while doing so resolved to make arrangements for getting as much as might be needed in the future.
A leaf served as a salt-dish, and he carried it carefully back to the hut, saying as he deposited the precious powder where it could not be blown away:
“To-morrow I’ll go after those pieces of canvas the captain wrapped his bogus grub in and begin this part of my housekeeping in ship-shape fashion. The fish will taste mighty good to-night if I can manage to cook them all over alike.”