"I can't find any signs of oars, so I will take a piece of this wood."
He ferried it across, and landed a hundred feet below. As he neared the shore George sprang toward it excitedly, and cried out: "Look at that! See the name, 'Investigator'!"
Harry stopped rowing, and bent over the side of the craft; there, plainly, near the stern, was the word "Investigator" followed by the letter "L." The space beyond the letter L was broken, and if anything else had originally been in that space it had been brushed off by contact with some outside object.
This was, undoubtedly, one of the companion lifeboats of their ill-fated ship.
"How do you suppose this boat ever got here?"
"It undoubtedly came over the falls, and if so, it must have come from the interior of the island. My only solution is, that our companions in this boat were also, like us, cast ashore, or, at any rate, the boat itself was, and if they reached land safely probably used this boat on the river."
"Isn't it singular that this boat has been treated just as our boat was, since they removed the lockers? Why should they do that?"
"The interesting thing to me is," answered the Professor, "why the boat was lost by them, if it ever was in the possession of our friends on the island?"
"Possibly the natives may have captured or killed them."
"That is a plausible explanation, but there may be a reason which is entirely different from anything which now occurs to us. I believe a search of the island will show that we are not the only white people living here, and that the loss of the boat indicates that they are not on friendly terms with the natives."