CHAPTER IX
ALONE ON AN ISLAND
Of course our hero's position was not to be compared with that of oneleft on a lonely island in the Pacific, but it was not agreeable. He wasonly three miles from the mainland, but there was no chance to crossthis brief distance. He had no boat, and though he could swim a little,he would inevitably have been drowned had he undertaken to swim toshore.
Robert had read "Robinson Crusoe," and he naturally thought of thatfamous mariner on finding himself in a similar position.
He had never been on Egg Island before and he knew it only as he hadseen it from the mainland or from a boat.
"That's a mean trick of Uncle John," said Robert to himself. "If I hadsuspected what he was after I wouldn't have got out of the boat."
Just then he saw the boat turn, the fisherman pulling for the island.
Robert felt relieved. He was not to be left on the island after all. Hesat still and waited for the boat to approach.
"Well, how do you like it?" asked Trafton when he was within a fewrods.
"Not very well," answered our hero.
"You wouldn't care to stay here, I suppose?"
"No."
"I will take you back into the boat if you will promise to give me thatmoney."
It was a tempting proposal, and Robert was half inclined to yield. But,he reflected, his uncle had no claim to the money, and, if he securedit, would spend it for drink, while his aunt would lose the benefit ofit. He summoned all his courage and answered:
"You have no right to the money, uncle. I can't give it to you."
"If you don't, I will row away and leave you."
"Then you will be doing a very mean thing," said Robert with spirit.
"That's my lookout. Just understand that I am in earnest. Now, what doyou say?"
"I say no," answered our hero firmly.
"Then you may take the consequences," said his uncle, with a mutteredcurse, as he turned the head of the boat and rowed rapidly away.
Robert watched the receding boat, and for an instant he regretted hisdetermination. But it was only for an instant.
"I have done what I thought to be right," he said, "and I don't believeI shall have cause to repent it. I must see what is best to be done."
He got up and set about exploring his small island kingdom.
It was very rocky, the only vegetation being some scant grass and somewhortleberry bushes. Luckily it was the height of the berry season andthere was a good supply on the bushes.
"I shan't starve just yet," he said cheerfully. "These berries will keepme alive for a day or two, if I am compelled to remain as long."
There was this advantage about the berries, that, in a measure, theysatisfied his thirst as well as his hunger.
Robert did not immediately begin to gather berries, for it was yetearly, and too short a time had elapsed since breakfast for him to havegained an appetite. He wandered at random over his small kingdom andfrom the highest portion looked out to sea.
Far away he saw several sails, but there was little chance of beingrescued by any. If he were seen, it would not be supposed that he wasconfined a prisoner on an island so near the mainland. Still Robert didnot feel that he was likely to be a prisoner for a long time.
There were other fishermen, besides his uncle, at Cook's Harbor, and bynext morning, at the farthest, he would be able to attract the attentionof some one of them as he cruised near the island.
But it would not be very pleasant to pass a night alone in such anexposed spot.
Not long before a sloop had been wrecked upon the southwest corner ofthe island, and though no lives were lost, the vessel itself had been soinjured that there had been no attempt to repair or remove it.
In coasting near the island Robert had often thought he would like toexamine the wreck, but he never had done so. It struck him now that hehad a capital opportunity to view it at his leisure. Of leisure,unfortunately, he had too much on his hands.
There was a patch of sand at the corner where the sloop had run ashoreand the frame of the vessel had imbedded in it. A portion had been sweptaway, but a considerable part still remained.
Robert clambered down and began to make an examination of the strandedvessel.
"I suppose it belongs to me if I choose to claim it," he said tohimself. "At any rate, no one else is likely to dispute my claim.Wouldn't it be jolly if I could find a keg of gold pieces hiddensomewhere about the old wreck? That would keep aunt and me for years andwe wouldn't feel any anxiety about support."
This was very pleasant to think about certainly, but kegs of gold piecesare not often carried on sloops nowadays, as Robert very well knew.
The chief use the old wreck was likely to be to him was in affordingmaterials for a raft by which he might find his way to the mainland.
Our hero made a critical survey of the wreck and tried to pull it apart.This was not easy, but finally he was enabled to detach a few planks.
"If I only had a saw, a hammer and some nails," he thought, "I couldbuild a raft without much difficulty. But I don't see how I am going toget along without these."
For the hammer he soon found a substitute in a hard rock of moderatesize. There were nails, but they were not easy to extricate from theplanks. As to a saw, there was no hope of getting one or anything thatwould answer the purpose of one.
Robert worked hard for a couple of hours and in that time he hadaccomplished something. He had extricated half a dozen planks of unequallength, secured a supply of nails, more or less rusty, and thus hadalready provided the materials of a raft.
The grand difficulty remained--to fashion them into a raft which wouldconvey him in safety to the shore of the mainland.
I have said that he had no saw. He had a jackknife, however, and thiswas of some use to him, particularly in extricating the nails. It wasslow work, but he had all day before him.
When the two hours were over he began to feel hungry. It was not farfrom the time when he was accustomed to take dinner, and he set aboutsatisfying his hunger.
He went from bush to bush, plucking the ripe berries and eating them.They were very good, but not quite so hearty as a plate of meat andpotatoes. However, he would have had no meat if he had been able to sitdown at home.
After dinner--if his repast of berries can be dignified by such aname--Robert sat down to rest a while before resuming his labors on theraft.
He finally lay down with his head in the shadow of an unusually largebush, and, before he was fully aware of the danger, he had fallenasleep. When he awoke he saw by the position of the sun that it must beabout the middle of the afternoon.
He jumped up hastily, and, first of all, took a hasty glance around tosee if he could anywhere descry a boat. But none was to be seen.
"I must set about making my raft," he decided. "It is getting late and Idon't know how long it may take me."
It proved to be slow and rather difficult work. Robert was pounding awaywith his stone hammer when, to his great joy, he descried a boatrounding the corner of the island.
It was rowed by a single boy. When he came near Robert recognized him asGeorge Randolph--the cousin of his friend Herbert.
It happened that George was very fond of rowing and had a boat of hisown, which he rowed a good deal in Boston Harbor.
He had long had an ambition to row to Egg Island and had selected thisday for the trip. He had not asked Herbert to accompany him, beingdesirous of saying that he had accomplished the entire trip alone.
Though George had not seemed very friendly, Robert did not for a momentdoubt that he would be willing to help him in his strait, and he wasalmost as delighted to see him as he would have been to see Herberthimself. There would be no need now of the raft, and he gladly suspendedwork upon it.
Rising to his feet, he called out:
"Hello, there!"
George paused in his rowing and asked--for he had not yet caught sightof Robert:
"Who calls?"
"I--Robert Cover
dale!"
Then George, turning his glance in the right direction, caught sight ofthe boy he had tried to snub in the morning.
Robert Coverdale's Struggle; Or, on the Wave of Success Page 9