“Must have come from a carrier,” suggested Jack. “Too big for a cruiser or a destroyer.”
“I’ll bet it came from that carrier we spotted!” Stew exploded, becoming greatly excited. “Boy! Oh boy! Our bombers got them!”
Jack was not too sure of this. However, they soon established the fact that the raft was undamaged and had no broken lines attached to it, so it could not have been blown from the carrier by a bomb. Then Jack was convinced that the Japs must have lost the raft in trying to launch it while under fire, and that the carrier must have been sunk.
“That’s swell!” he sighed. “Means we’ve been some use to our country. I hope Ted and all the rest got home safely.”
“It’s great news!” Stew agreed. “But that means our task force finished that job twenty-four hours ago, so where are they now?”
“You tell me,” Jack sighed.
“But say!” Stew exclaimed. “There are three or four big sealed cans attached to the raft. Let’s cut them loose and take them in.”
“Sure! That’s what we’ll do!” Jack agreed. “Then we’ll open them and see what kind of luck we’ve had.”
They carried away the three large cans, to open them later by the light of a small fire built among huge rocks, where the glow would not show.
One can they found to be filled with food—packages of rice and tea, bars of bitter chocolate, and small tins of fish. They put away these supplies against some evil day.