“Perhaps I might shove her up still further, if you fellows went ashore,” he suggested; which they declared to be a good thing.
“After all,” said Jack, when he had actually succeeded in pushing the stranded Comfort a foot or so further in, “what does it matter? We’ll have to make a couple of skids tomorrow, and get a purchase on some of the mangroves yonder; when we can yank her up, no matter where she is. And now I vote that we get ashore, and see about starting supper. I’m as hungry as a bear.”
“Hear! hear!” applauded Nick. “And while I’m about it, I guess I had ought to change my shoes and socks, because I’m wet to the knees; fact is, I’m pretty well soaked all over. Josh kept emptying his old pail over me right along. I guess I swallowed as much of the salt stuff as he got over the side.”
However, by the time night had set in, the boys were all feeling in a better humor. Those who were wet had changed some of their things, and dried the rest beside the fire that was burning cheerily.
“What do you think of it, Jack?” asked Herbert, after the other had made as good an examination of the hole in the bottom of the wrecked motor boat as the circumstances permitted.
“It’s a clean hole, all right,” was the response, “but I don’t see any reason why we can’t patch it up to last until we get to a boat builder’s yard.”
“I’m right glad to hear you say that,” continued the anxious skipper, “because, as you all know, I’m mighty fond of my boat, and would hate like everything to have to abandon the poor old thing in this place. So now I can eat some supper with a touch of appetite.”
At any rate it was pleasant to again stretch their legs, after being confined to the boats for several days. And Josh seemed to have enjoyed cooking a full meal once more for the crowd.
“Now, how about that roost; do you suppose we can find it from here?” George asked, when they were about through.
“If you still feel like going, I think it won’t be a hard thing,” Jack declared.