They
asked the pair to tell their story, and Baxter spoke up, while Lesher
applied himself to the bottle.
"We floated around the ocean for several days," said the bully. "One
sailor went crazy from the sunshine and leaped overboard, and was
drowned. Then a heavy wind came up and drove the boat, in the night,
onto an island close to this one. We were cast ashore with hardly
any provisions, and two of the sailors were sick. We had to live on
fish, birds, and fruit, and we've had a hard lot of it, I can tell
you that. Yesterday Lesher and I resolved to explore this island,
thinking that perhaps some of the wreckage from the schooner had
washed ashore here. We came over in the afternoon and tramped along
the north shore until it grew dark, but without finding anything. We
slept at the shore last night, and this morning started to go over
the hill back there. But the snakes chased us off, and then we came
around over some rough rocks, where both of us got our clothing torn.
We thought we saw a flag up there somewhere, but we weren't sure."
"Yes, we have a signal of distress up there," answered Dora. She
hardly knew how best to reply.
"Who is here?"
"Captain Blossom, old Jerry Tolman, and the three Rover boys. Old
Jerry and Dick have just gone over to the wreck en an errand. The
others have gone on an exploring tour among the islands, which are
seven in number."
"Got the wreck, have yer!" came in almost a grunt from Jack Lesher.
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