Bob had awakened from the noise of the tempest. He sat up, half frightened, but when Jerry assured him everything was safe he turned over and dozed off again, so powerful a hold did the fever have on him.
It was a night such as the travelers had seldom experienced on any of their journeys, and they had been in some tight places. There was almost a continuous rattle and roar of thunder and the lightning was incessant. Mingled with the rain was the boom of the lake waves on the shore, for the wind kicked up quite a disturbance on the large body of water.
“I hope our boat’s safe,” remarked Jerry as there sounded a fiercer burst of the storm.
It seemed as if morning would never come but at last there was a perceptible lifting of the darkness and the storm seemed to abate some. Ned put on an oil-skin coat, and, donning a pair of rubber boots, ventured out. No sooner had he emerged from the tent than he gave a shout which brought the professor and Jerry to the tent flap.
“What’s the matter?” asked Mr. Snodgrass.
“Adrift! What do you mean? We’re not on the boat!”
“No, but we’re on something that’s floating. Look over there at those trees on shore and you can see that we’re moving!”
Jerry and the professor looked. Getting two tall trees in range they could easily note that they were moving, as the position of the trees changed with reference to themselves.
“We must have landed on an island instead of on the mainland,” said Ned. “In some way the island got adrift.”
“I think we landed on the main land all right,” said Uriah Snodgrass, “but what happened was this: These everglades are not much more than floating masses of vegetation, several feet thick it is true, and capable of supporting large trees. But the fury of the storm probably cut off from the main land the portion we’re on. It floated off and took us with it. We’re in the middle of the lake.”
“Back where you moored it, probably, unless it has also drifted with us,” replied Mr. Snodgrass.
“Then we’re in for a lot of trouble,” exclaimed Ned. “What shall we do?”
“We’d better make some explorations,” suggested the professor. “It’s stopped raining. We’ll try and discover how large our island is.”
They looked to see that Bob was comfortable, and found him sleeping. Placing some water where he could reach it, the three set off expecting to be back in half an hour or so.