“My! what a fright I had!” exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. “I thought one of the children had rolled into the ocean!”
“That couldn’t happen,” said Captain Crane. “There is a strong railing all about the deck.”
“Well, it’s cooler now,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “I think I’ll take the twins and go to our regular beds.”
She did this and was glad of it, for a little later a thunderstorm broke, and it began to rain, driving every one below. The rest of the night the storm kept up, and though the thunder was loud and the lightning very bright, the rain did one good service—it made the next day cooler.
“Well, shall we go ashore again?” asked Mr. Bobbsey, when breakfast had been eaten aboard the Swallow.
“Oh, yes!” cried the twins. “We want to go swimming again!”
“And I’m going to watch out for ‘mud turkles,’” said Flossie, as she called them.
Once more they went to the beach of Palm Island, and they had dinner on the shady shore. In the afternoon, leaving the engineer and his helpers on board to work away at the motor, the whole party of travelers, Captain Crane, Cousin Jasper and all, started on a walk to the other side of the island. This took them out of sight of the boat.
They found many pretty things at which to look—flowers, a spring of sweet water where they got a drink, little caves and dells, and a place where hundreds of birds made their nests on a rocky cliff. The birds wheeled and soared about, making loud noises as they saw the Bobbsey twins and the others near their nests.
It was along in the afternoon when they went back to the beach where they had eaten, and where they were to have supper. Bert, who had run on ahead around a curve in the woodland path, came to a stop on the beach.