“I hope the cannibals won’t see us,” said Diego, glancing apprehensively towards the shore.
“I don’t believe it would matter if they did from there,” answered Juan. “Do you?”
“I don’t suppose it would. See! there are a great many coming down to the beach out of the woods. I hope they are not coming out to fish. Do you see any canoes?”
“No,” answered Juan, his heart rising up into his throat. And indeed it was a frightful thing to contemplate.
The boys lowered their voices in speaking to each other after that, and kept their eyes fixed anxiously on the natives moving about on the shore. Their actions seemed very strange to the watching boys; though they afterwards knew that their peculiar antics were due to catching turtles and turning them on their backs.
By and by they went away, and the boys breathed more freely, though still they were filled with anxiety. If they had had a paddle they would undoubtedly have worked away from the coast.
“I wonder,” said Juan, after a while, “if we are far from where we went overboard?”
Diego had already been wondering the same thing, and had been trying to work it out.
“I’m afraid we are,” he answered. “I think, from the looks of things, that that mountain to the east of us is where we nearly ran ashore. That is ten leagues away, at least.”
“Then if the ship does come back,” said Juan, and stopped there, dreading to say what was in his thoughts.