Ditty started to make an objection.
"Beg pardon, sir, but I don't care for shore leave myself. Mr. Rogers can go in my place if he wants to, sir."
"You heard what I said, Mr. Ditty. Mr. Rogers went yesterday," said the captain curtly. "Have both boats lowered at once."
There was no help for it, and Ditty yielded a surly obedience.
"What time shall I bring the men back, sir?" he asked.
"When I give you the signal," replied the captain. "Perhaps not till late afternoon. Take your dinner grub with you."
The boats left the ship's side together, and in a few minutes both reached the beach. With instructions to Ditty to keep his men on the east end of the island, the captain's party entered the jungle.
They easily found the path they had trodden the day before, and were well on their way to the whale's hump when they were startled by a queer vibration of the earth. There was no sound accompanying it. On the contrary, everything seemed hushed in a deathlike stillness. The cries of birds and the humming of insects had stopped as though by magic. Nature seemed to be holding her breath.
Then came a second quivering stronger than the first—a shock which threw the four treasure hunters violently to the ground.