An astounding thing had happened, as the adventurers could now see. Although they had not known it, the island had once formed part of the mainland, and a narrow neck still connected it at a depth of only a few feet at low water. It was now low tide, and the earthquake, while it depressed the central part of the island, had performed a still more astonishing freak.
It had raised this narrow neck linking it to the shore till it was quite a few inches above the level of the water, making a causeway of wet sand between the island and the mainland!
Jack was the first to grasp the significance of this. He gave a glad shout as he did so.
“Hurrah! We are saved!” he cried. “The earthquake has saved us!”
“What?” demanded his hearers, not quite so quick-thinking as Jack.
“Don’t you see?” exclaimed the boy. “We can drive the Flying Road Racer ashore over that neck of sand as easily as if we were taking a spin in the park.”
“But suppose another shock causes the neck of sand to subside again?” asked Mr. Jesson skeptically.
“We must take our chances of that,” Tom answered him. “In any case, it means death to remain where we are.”
CHAPTER XXVI—AN ASTOUNDING DISCOVERY
As Jack spoke, the island gave another trembling shake. It was only a slight one, but it warned them that, in all probability, there were to be more violent shocks succeeding it.