“Depend on it, Ben will give us a due share of whatever he has found,” said Boxall, as we followed our companion.
“Have you found any mussels?” Halliday was asking as we drew near.
“Better than mussels—oysters,” answered Ben. “It’s a very hard job, however, to get them off the rock. I intended to surprise you, thinking you were all still asleep, and so I waited till I could get enough for all of us.”
He showed us his ample pockets already full; and, hungry as he was, I am certain that the honest fellow had not touched one of them. We retired to the dry sand, and sitting down, eagerly opened the oysters with our knives. How delicious they were! meat and drink in one, as Ben observed—for we could scarcely have swallowed any dry food just then. We found our strength greatly restored after our meal.
Having told Ben of the means we had taken to find water, we advised him to come back with us and get a drink.
“No, no, gentlemen,” he said; “it will be wiser first to collect as many oysters as we can secure before the tide comes back, for we shall not then be able to get them.”
So we all set to work to collect oysters, filling our pockets and then carrying them on shore, and there piling them up beyond high-water mark. We knew that we should require a large number: indeed, Boxall reminded us that we could not expect to live long upon them and keep up our strength. It was tantalising, also, to reflect that we could not carry any quantity on our intended voyage.
Boxall then proposed that we should return to our water-hole. “Though I am afraid, Charlie, we shall not find your shoes very full,” he observed.
“Perhaps not; but if we take a few of the deepest of these oyster-shells, we may get water more quickly,” I answered. The thought that they would be of use had just struck me.
Away we went, our pockets loaded with as many oysters as we could carry. When we got to the hole I was disappointed to find that Boxall was right, and that there was only just sufficient water in my shoes to enable Ben partly to quench his thirst. By further increasing the hole, however, and putting down our oyster-shells, we found that we could obtain a much larger quantity of the precious liquid than by means of the shoes. Still there was only just enough to quench our thirst; and even had we possessed a bottle, it would have required some hours to fill it.