“It seems as if it ought to be easy to find,” said Guy.
“Yes; but you must remember that the woods, besides running back for perhaps three or four miles, reach nearly across the island in breadth. It may be a long and tedious search, after all.”
“But I don’t think we can fail to succeed at last.”
“Yet it may be a matter of weeks before we find the cross.”
“At any rate we have the clue. It does not require sharpness, only patience.”
When midday came all felt hungry, and they sat down to eat the provisions they had brought with them.
As they had discovered water nowhere else, they were obliged to work their way back to the spring which they had originally chanced upon.
“It is a pity that we didn’t bring a pail with us to hold water, so that we need not have been obliged to retrace our footsteps.”
“We shall know better how to manage to-morrow.”
The three explorers wandered about till they were very tired, and a full hour before the time set they were on the beach waiting for the boat to carry them back to the Osprey. They were seen from the vessel, and in a few minutes they were on board again.