“What!” cried his uncle.
“That’s right,” confirmed Jack. “The stern boat, the only one that was left, is missing from the davits. They must have waited for the sea to go down and then made off, leaving us to our fate.”
“Wa’al, cuss their blue-nosed pelts!” roared Captain Sprowl. “I’d give all I have to get my hands on ‘em for jus’ erbout ten seconds.”
But neither the captain’s righteous wrath nor the just indignation of the rest of the deserted party could disguise the fact that they were left, boatless and marooned on a craft leaking like a sieve, castaways on an unknown coast.
[CHAPTER XI.]
ABOARD THE WRECK.
The morning dawned as only a perfect tropic morning can. The sea was as smooth as glass. Not a cloud was to be seen as a reminder of the elemental fury of the preceding night. The sun, as it rose, a huge red ball above the rim of the sea, showed them some things about their situation that were calculated to give them good cause for worry.
In the first place, it must be said that there was not a sign of the two boats to be seen. For anything that appeared of them, they might never have existed. Indeed, on that calm, serene dawn the fantastic events of the wild night that lay behind them did seem very much like the distorted experiences of a nightmare. But their haggard, anxious faces, and the pitiable condition of the Valkyrie, bore eloquent testimony to the fact that all that had passed was only too true.
As a matter of fact, the night’s incidents proved to be only minor matters for consideration in view of one greater fact that now confronted them. The Valkyrie lay with her bow well up amidst a tangled mass of low-growing jungle. Her stern, from just forward of midships, was almost under water. Even a casual inspection showed that if the sea should rise again it was not all unlikely that she might slide off into deep water and sink.
But the most astonishing thing about this land which they had struck was that they could see across it and to either of its limitations. It was, in fact, an island, stranded there out of sight of all other land. In shape it might have been likened to a splash of gravy on a plate, so irregular in form was it. As to dimensions, it was probably a quarter of a mile across, and perhaps twice that in length.