CHAPTER VI
THE REVEALING NIGHT
FOR minutes they stood looking after the boat. They could not believe it true. Left on the island, far from any habitation! It seemed as if some one must miss them, as if the steamer would surely come chugging back after them.
But instead it went farther and farther away, and presently out of sight.
As the last gleam of light disappeared around a far point of land, Erminie turned in dismay.
“Oh, Billy, do you know the way to the Beckets’?”
“Who are they? I never heard of them.”
“They live on this island, but I don’t know the direction.”
“The island is five miles long and wooded like a jungle. We might wander in a circle for hours and not get five hundred yards from where we started.” Billy spoke calmly and rather absently. He was sizing up the situation, trying to see the best way out of it. While they talked, clouds that had been earlier hovering on the horizon, now joined and veiled the moon.
“Gee! If Luna goes back on us we’ll have to give up travel by land.”
“Perhaps there’s a boat—canoe or rowboat.”