“Look! Here is a lot of canned food,” said Mrs. Brown, opening the door of a cupboard. On the shelves were arranged many cans of things to eat.
“I can guess what has happened,” said Mr. Brown. “The ship, of which this deckhouse was a part, was wrecked on this island, or near it. There must have been big waves to have washed the house this far up on the sand, or else the shipwrecked sailors hauled it here. There must have been more than one of them to do the work, for the house is heavy.”
“Well, where are the sailors now?” Bunny wanted to know.
“Maybe they went home,” suggested Sue.
“They seem to have deserted the place,” said Mr. Brown. “Like the grass hut, this place has been lived in, but there is no one here now.”
Mrs. Brown, who had been walking about the place looking at things here and there, went over to the stone fireplace and held her hand down near the ashes.
“What’s the matter, Mother, are your hands cold?” asked Sue.
“No, I wanted to see if these ashes were warm,” was the answer. “And they are!” she called to her husband. “Feel, Walter! These embers aren’t cold yet! That shows some one has been living here very lately. They must have gone out just before we came in! They must have cooked their breakfast here!”
She stood up and looked at her husband. He came over and put his hand down near the ashes.
“Yes,” he said, “there has been a fire here within two hours. I am sure now that there is some one on this island besides ourselves. We must look about.”