“If, as you say, we are likely to be here a long while, there isn’t any very great need of hurrying, and I feel as if I’d been shoveling coal for a week.”
The others were quite as willing as he to delay the labor during the heat of the day, and the result was that the task of wrecking was not resumed until nearly three o’clock, when the greater portion of the remaining time was spent in putting up the tent.
It was necessary this work be done in a thorough manner, lest the next gale should level it to the ground, and each fastening was looked to carefully.
When the task was finished the young wreckers had good reason to feel proud of their arrangements for “housekeeping.”
The cook-tent was placed at right angles with the other, so that one end of the sleeping apartment would be partially screened from the wind, and both were lashed together in such a manner as to add to the solidity of each.
“It will be a case of losing both or holding all,” Roy said in a tone of satisfaction as he surveyed the result of their labors. “Now when such provisions as have not been spoiled by the salt water are under cover, I shall feel as if we were in fair condition for a long stay here.”
“Don’t you suppose your fathers will search for you when the yacht fails to show up at Savannah?” Ned asked.
“Of course; but the chances they will ever find this little island seem to me mighty slim,” Roy replied. “It won’t pay to discuss the matter just now, though, for all that stuff on the shore should be under cover by sunset. Come on; we shall have to work mighty hard to finish before dark.”
And the young wreckers soon learned that Roy was correct.
The sun had been behind the sea fully an hour before the last package was sheltered from the weather and the labor of getting supper could be begun.
It had been unnecessary to light the lanterns in order to finish the job. There was not a cloud in the sky, and the stars gave sufficient light to enable them to see their way to and fro from the beach to the tent.
Both Ned and Vance assisted the cook in preparing the evening meal, and what a delicious sense of comfort was theirs when, supper having been eaten, all three lay on the soft beds where they could look out over the ocean!