The Hilltop Boys on Lost Island | Page 9

seems very small. Many of the islands hereabouts have no one on them."
"You don't know which one it is as yet?"
"No, I don't."
The doctor walked forward, and looked over the rail, and Jack went up to Bucephalus, and the old sailor and said:
"You don't know where we are, either of you, I suppose?"
"Ah haven't de remotest ideah, sah," replied the negro, "an' far as Ah can make o't dis gentleman am in de same predicament. He says we am in de tropics at a island ob not werry big size an' importance, but Ah was aware of dese fac's mahself befo' Ah interrogated him, sah, so dat Ah am no furder dan Ah was befo', sah."
"This here is an island in the Spanish Main, the place where the old pirates and buccaneers used to roam," said the old sailor whose name Jack learned later was Ben Bowline, "and that's all I know about it. You didn't come lookin' fur Cap'n Kidd's treasure, did you?"
"No, we did not, and I don't believe we would find it if we had. Men are foolish that go looking for such things. I don't believe that Captain Kidd buried the hundredth part of the gold that he is reputed to have buried. I have other things to do besides looking for buried gold."
"You're about right," said Ben, "but there's plenty who do look for it, and spend their lives at it and don't get nothing. This here is one of them islands, and I thought mebby you boys had come a-lookin' for something like that. Boys haven't anymore sense."
"Thank you, but you'll find that the Hilltop boys have a good deal more sense than that."
After breakfast two of the yacht's boats were lowered, and some of the boys went ashore to explore the island and amuse themselves in various ways while the captain sent a party to find the outlet of the bay, and see what their chances for leaving the island might be.
Jack, Percival, Harry, Arthur and young Smith went on one boat, and were the first to land, walking up the beach and into the woods as the other boat came ashore.
Picking a path as they went on Jack and his companions pushed into the deep everglade, the lush undergrowth sometimes quite impeding their progress, and making their advance very slow.
"If we were going to be here any time," said Percival, "we should have to make a path so that we could get about with greater rapidity. If we had thought to bring an axe it would have been better."
After a time their progress was more rapid, as the undergrowth was less rank, and they went on with more comfort.
Many varieties of cactus, prickly pears, plums and plants with the most gorgeous flowers lined their path, and gave constant delight to young Smith and some of the others, but Jack and Percival were more intent on seeing where they would come out than in looking at plants and flowers, and they gave the latter little attention.
"There is certainly no one on the island," said Jack at length when they came out upon an upland glade more open to the sky than the parts already traversed, "or we should have seen them by this time. I think we have been going in the same general direction, Dick, so suppose we push on in the same line, and see where we come out."
"All right, but there are hills, which we may have to climb if we keep straight on. There they are ahead of us."
"Yes, I see them, but they do not seem to be very high nor far away. If they want us back at the yacht they will probably blow the bugle."
They pushed on across the open space, and then through a wood where it was not so easy to advance and at length, without noticing it, began to descend, the way being good at times and at others very difficult so that they were frequently obliged to halt and get breath.
"I shouldn't wonder if we were the pioneers of this island," said Harry, "for no one seems to have been through here before. How do you stand it, young Smith, all right?"
"Well, it is not so easy as walking along Broadway in New York," rejoined Jesse W., "but I can manage it, I guess."
"It strikes me that we are going down instead of up," observed Arthur, "and we thought we would have to climb the hills we saw."
"You often have to go up and down two or three times in climbing a mountain," said Jack. "It looks all up from a distance, but there are often intervening valleys, which have to be crossed, and then you go up again."
"This must be a pretty deep one, then," said Harry, "for we are going