CHAPTER XIV.
IN THE GRAY OF THE MORNING.
As the first flush of dawn appeared Ned said: "Jack, we mustn't lose ourheads. You know what you said after the wreck. You and I have to lookafter Charley to-day, and we may have need of all our wits and all ourstrength; so, for his sake, if not for our own, we must force a fullbreakfast down our throats. It will steady as well as strengthen us. Idon't want any thing to eat, and I suppose you don't, but we must eatfor all that. We haven't had a mouthful since noon yesterday, and we'llbe fit for no exertion if we go on in this way."
"That is true," answered Jack; "we must eat breakfast."
"Very well; then let's be about it, so that we may have it over by thetime that it is fairly light, and then we'll lose no time in settingout."
"You can't leave camp," said Jack; "your foot is awfully swollen andyour leg too."
"Yes, I know," answered Ned, "but I am going anyhow. We must findCharley, and maybe both of us will be needed when we do."
While this discussion was going on the breakfast preparations wereadvancing, and it was not long before the two disconsolate fellows beganthe difficult task of forcing food down their unwilling throats.
"What is our best plan of operations, Jack?" asked Ned.
"I scarcely know. Perhaps we'd best go round the island, one one way andthe other the other, shouting and looking. Then, if either finds Charleyand needs assistance the other will of course be there soon afterward."
"Hardly," said Ned. "The island is pretty large, and I suppose it is agood many miles around it. Wouldn't it be better to take a directcourse?"
"How?"
"Why, by going first to the rice swamp. There we shall almost certainlybe able to find and follow Charley's trail."
"Of course," answered Jack. "What an idiot I was not to think of thatfirst! The fact is, I believe last night's anxiety, particularly whileyou were away, was too much for me. I lost my head a little, I think,and haven't quite found it again."
"Listen! What's that?" exclaimed Ned, rising to look. As he did so, thebushes near the shore on the left of the camp parted, and----
"Bless me! it's Charley!" shouted both boys in a breath.
"Did you think I had run away with your trowsers?" asked the cause ofall their anxieties, throwing down the two pairs of pantaloons stuffedfull of wet rice.
"Gracious! Charley, where have you been?"
"We've had an awful night!" exclaimed Ned.
"Do I look as though I had had a particularly pleasant one?" respondedCharley. "Do my dress and general appearance indicate that I dined lastevening in the mansions of the great and slept upon a bed of down?"
"Well, no," said Ned, unable as yet to share Charley's cheerfulness ofmood; "but really, Charley, we have suffered a good deal. You ought tohave come back to camp."
"Now, look here, fellows," said Charley, more seriously than he had yetspoken, "if you think I haven't known by instinct how much you wouldsuffer because of my unexplained absence, you do me great injustice. Mysituation through the night has been none of the pleasantest, but theworst part of it has been what I have suffered thinking of your anxiety.Pray, don't imagine that I'm totally destitute of feeling."
There was a hurt tone in Charley's voice as he said this, to which Nedresponded at once.
"Forgive me, Charley," he said, holding out his hand, which the othertook. "I did not mean to reproach you wrongfully. I know your warm heartand generous soul."
"Yes," added Jack, "and nothing in the world could have made us so happyas your safe return. But tell us what has happened. Where have youbeen?"
"Not a word until food is set before me," said Charley, relapsing intohis playful mood again. "I am famished."
"All right," said Ned; "we cooked enough to take with us, and we didn'teat much, so your breakfast is ready. In fact I begin to be hungrymyself, now that you've got back in safety."
"So do I," said Jack; "let's begin over again, and all breakfasttogether."
The Wreck of the Red Bird: A Story of the Carolina Coast Page 15