“Now you lose no time in sarch for him,” said Ebony, “an’ dis yar nigger will show you de way.”
“Do, my fine fellow, and when we find him, I’ll not forget your services.”
“You’s berry good, a’most too good,” said Ebony, with an affectionate look at his new employer.
So, as we have said, the village and island were searched high and low without success. At last, while the searching party was standing, baffled, on the shore farthest from the village, Captain Fitzgerald stopped abruptly, and looking Zeppa in the face, exclaimed, “Strange, is it not? and the island so small, comparatively.”
“Quite unaccountable,” answered Zeppa, who, with his son, had at last joined in the search out of sheer anxiety as to Rosco’s fate.
“Most perplexing!” said Orlando.
“Most amazin’!” murmured Ebony, with a look of disappointment that baffles description.
Suddenly the negro pointed to the beach, exclaiming, “Oh! I knows it now! Look dare. You see two small canoes? Dere wor tree canoes dare yisterday. De t’ird wan am dare now. Look!”
They all looked eagerly at the horizon, where a tiny speck was seen. It might have been a gull or an albatross.
“Impossible,” said Zeppa. “Where could he hope to escape to in that direction—no island within a thousand miles?”