“I suppose,” he said slowly, “that he is accustomed to handling all kinds of motors?”
“Knows ’em like a book,” the captain chuckled as he passed on.
“All the same,” said Pant, some time later, when he had been told of the conversation, “I’ll wager he’ll have some difficulty in getting old ‘Dust Eater’ to perform for him. These dust-eatin’ birds are particular who rides on their backs!”
CHAPTER XV
THE CHESTS ARE FOUND
The storm passed over with the rising sun; the clouds scurried away, the wind went down, and the sun set the ocean, the shore and the tree-tops all aglitter with a million diamonds. It seemed fortunate that there was to be no prolonged uncertainty about the future, yet the boys dreaded to face the conflict which manifestly lay before them.
The beach was strewn with drift from the lately wrecked vessel. Hardly a vestige of the ship was left to mark the spot where it had gone aground. The wreck of the Chinese ship, however, was still standing, the point having sheltered it from the force of the waves.
Seamen were at once busy salvaging eatables from the wreckage. Various barrels, boxes and casks, containing beef, pilot-bread, tea, coffee, cheese and like commodities, which would prove invaluable if there was to be a prolonged stay on the island, were piled on the shore.
“Here, you. Lend a hand,” the captain shouted to a knot of men.
The bay was quiet now. His purser, the former air pilot, had had the landing-wheels removed from the “Dust Eater.” They were prepared to launch her.
“That captain is a rotter,” said Pant. “He and his purser would go off and leave us all here to starve if they could.”