"Mr. Daley, you are a brave man."
"Glad of the compliment, Dave Fearless. I hope I deserve it."
"You certainly do," asserted Dave warmly. "But where are Jones and Lewis?"
Daley, who had flushed with pleasure at the handsome compliment bestowed by the young friend he was learning to like and respect, scowled and muttered angrily at this allusion to the companions who had been captured with them by the natives on the cape bluff.
"They're cowards, that's what they are," cried Daley angrily, "the miserable villains."
"Well, I hope they got away safely, anyhow," said Dave simply.
"They don't deserve it," growled Daley. "Now then, lad, so far so good. But what next?"
"That's so," remarked Dave Fearless. "What next, indeed?"
It was the second day after their capture. Dave and Daley were in a queer environment, to explain which it is necessary to go back to the hour when they were discovered on the cape bluff by the natives.
Their great joy at the discovery of the Swallow so near at hand off the island coast, had been quickly shadowed.