After securing the precious bidarkie in a place of safety, and cutting a few steaks from the great halibut, the three lads returned to camp, where they passed their evening in cooking and eating another meal.
“I don’t know how it is,” remarked Phil, meditatively, as he washed the dishes by thrusting his sheath-knife into a tuft of moss, “but there seems to be something in the air of this country that makes a fellow want to eat about a dozen meals a day.”
There seemed to be something in the air that compelled sleep, too. As there was a moon, the others agreed to Phil’s proposition, born of his recent resolves, to take turns in watching all night for the schooner. Kooga, to whom the plan was explained by Serge, was to take the first, Serge the midnight, and Phil the morning watch. This scheme was carried out as arranged, except that the rising sun found the last watcher sound asleep. Awakened by its warm beams, he cast a glance at the sea, sprang to his feet, rubbed his eyes, and looked again. Then he gave a shout that brought the others to his side.
The sight that met their gaze was that of a placid sea, with a dozen bidarkies, fully two miles away, stretched out in a long line on its heaving bosom. Beyond them were the white sails of a schooner headed to the eastward.
“How could she have got past without you seeing her?” asked Serge.
“I’m sure I don’t know,” answered Phil, “unless it was that I had closed my eyes for a minute. You see, I was so awfully sleepy that I had the hardest kind of work to keep them open. Now I’ll tell you what, though: Kooga and I will go out and overtake those bidarkies and find out when the schooner is coming back. We can catch them easy enough, for they seem to be waiting for something. I shouldn’t wonder if they were going to make a surround, which is what I want to see more than anything.”
“Well,” agreed Serge, hesitatingly; “but don’t you think I’d better go, as I can understand what they say?”
“Oh, that’ll be all right,” replied Phil, confidently. “There are sure to be some among them who can speak enough English to tell me what I want to find out.”
“And you will be back before night?”