Then he listened, and seemed quite surprised at what he heard.
“Yes, I’ll be down in a little while,” he went on. “Tell him to wait.”
“What is it?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey. “Was that Cousin Jasper?”
“Oh, no indeed!” her husband answered. “Though he is much better he is not quite well enough to leave the hospital yet and come to see us. This was an old sea captain talking from the main office of the hotel downstairs.”
“Is he going to take us for a trip on the ocean?” asked Bert eagerly.
“Well, that’s what he wants to do, or, rather, he wants me to see about a big motor boat in which to take a trip. Cousin Jasper sent him to me. But let me finish what I was saying about the island, and then I’ll tell you about the sea captain.”
Mr. Bobbsey hung up the telephone receiver and took his seat between Flossie and Freddie where he had been resting in an easy chair, telling the story.
“Cousin Jasper,” went on Mr. Bobbsey, “was quite ill on the island, and so was Jack Nelson. Just how long they stayed there, waiting for a boat to come and take them off, they do not know—at least, Cousin Jasper does not know.”
“Doesn’t that boy—Jack Nelson—know?” asked Bert.
“No, for he wasn’t taken off the island,” said Mr. Bobbsey. "And that is the strange part of Cousin Jasper’s story. He, himself, after a hard time on the island, must have fallen asleep, in a fever probably. When he awakened he was on board a small steamer, being brought back to St. Augustine. He hardly knew what happened to him, until he found himself in the hospital.