Charley lay awake a few minutes longer, his mind too full of worry and discouragement for instant sleep.
Their plight was enough to daunt the stoutest heart. Their launch was gone, pounded to pieces on the hard sand, and all the money they had worked so hard to earn and save would have to go to make good the loss. They would, after all their labor, be left just as they had landed in Clearwater with nothing but the clothing on their backs. That is, if they lived to reach Clearwater again.
His mind filled with these gloomy reflections, the lad at last dropped off to sleep.
CHAPTER XXVI.
CASTAWAYS.
The sun was high in the sky when Charley awoke and aroused his companions who were still sleeping.
"Too much to do to-day to sleep longer," he declared. "We have got to find something to eat, and then try to get out of this place. Let's try the water for food first, and see what we can find.
"We don't want to stray away from each other or get out of hearing of the surf," he said, as they picked their way over the knee-like roots. "Out of sound of the sea, a man would lose himself in five minutes in this uncanny forest. It is too dense to tell directions by the sun and one would stand a good chance of wandering around until death overtook him. Only the Seminole Indians can find their way through this horrible jungle and they have known it for ages."
This little talk had brought them down to the water and they were surprised at the change a few hours had made. The sea was beautifully calm. Only a few smooth, gentle rollers remained to tell of the past storm.