FOUND AT LAST
When Bert, with his father, Cousin Jasper and Captain Crane, got back to
the place where Mrs. Bobbsey had been left with Nan and the two smaller
twins, the camp on Orange Island was nearly finished. The tents had been
put up, and the oil-stove was ready for cooking.
"Didn't you find that poor boy?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"No, we saw no trace of him," her husband answered.
"Oh, isn't that too bad?"
"Yes, I am very sorry," sighed Cousin Jasper. "But I have not yet given
up. I'll stay here until either I find him, or make sure what has
happened to him. Poor Jack has no relatives, and I am his nearest
friend. I feel almost as though he were my son. We will find him if he
is on this island."
Bert and the others who had walked around to the other side of the
island, hoping that Jack might be found, were tired from their trip, and
when they got back were glad to sit on the beach in the shade. A meal
was soon ready, and when they had eaten they all felt better.
"It is too late to do much more searching to-day," said Cousin Jasper,
"but we will start early in the morning."
And this they did, after a quiet night spent on the island. As soon,
almost, as the sun had risen, the Bobbsey twins were up, and Bert and
Nan gathered oranges for breakfast.
"I wish we could live here always," said Freddie. "I'd never have to go
to the store for any fruit."
"But if we stayed here we couldn't have Snap or Snoop or Dinah or Sam,
or anybody like that from Lakeport," put in Flossie.
"Couldn't we, Mother?" asked the little boy.
"Course we couldn't!" insisted Flossie.
"Well, I guess it would be hard to bring from Lakeport all the friends
and all the things you like there," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Well, then we'll go back home after we find Jack," decided Freddie.
Breakfast over, the search for the missing boy was begun once more, Mrs.
Bobbsey and the smaller twins going along.
In some places, however, the way was rough and steep, and once on top of
a little hill, Freddie suddenly cried:
"Look out! I'm coming!"
And come he did, but in a queer way. For he slipped and fell, and rolled
to the bottom, bringing up with a bump against a stump.
"Oh, my dear little fat fireman! Did you hurt yourself?" asked his
father.
Freddie did not answer at first. He slowly got to his feet, looked up
the hill down which he had rolled, and then at the stump, which was
covered with moss.
"I--I guess I'm all right," he said.
"He's so fat he didn't get hurt," said Cousin Jasper. "Fat boys and
girls are just the kind to bring to a place like this. They can't get
hurt easily."
Freddie laughed, and so did the others, and then they went on again.
They looked in different places for the missing boy, and called his name
many times.
But all the sounds they heard in answer were those of the waves dashing
on the beach or the cries of the sea-birds.
"It is very strange," said Captain Crane. "If that boy was here about a
week ago, you'd think we could find some trace of him--some place where
he had built a fire, or set up a signal so it would be seen by passing
ships. I believe, Mr. Dent, that he must have been taken away, and when
we get back to St. Augustine he'll be there waiting for us."
"Well, perhaps you are right," said Cousin Jasper, "but we will make
sure. We'll stay here a week, anyhow, and search every part of Orange
Island."
They had brought their lunch with them, so they would not have to go
back to the camp when noon came, and, finding a pleasant place on the
beach, near a little spring of water, they sat down to rest.
Flossie and Freddie, as often happened, finished long before the others
did, and soon they strolled off, hand in hand, down the sands.
"Where are you going, children?" called Mrs. Bobbsey to them.
"Oh, just for a walk," Freddie answered.
"An' maybe we'll see Jack," added Flossie.
"I only wish they would, but it is too much to hope for," said Cousin
Jasper, and he looked worried.
Bert, Nan and the others stayed for some little time after lunch,
sitting in the shade on the beach, and talking. They were just about to
get up and once more start the search; when Flossie and Freddie came
running back. One look at their faces told their mother that something
had happened.
"What is it, children?" she asked.
"We--we found a big, black cave!" answered Freddie, somewhat out of
breath.
"An'--an' they's a--a _giant_ in it!" added Flossie, who was also
breathing hard.
"A cave!" cried Mr. Bobbsey.
"What do you mean by a giant in it?" asked Cousin Jasper.
"Well, when you see a big black hole in the side of a hill, isn't that a
cave?" asked Freddie.
"It surely is," said his father.
"An' when you hear somebody making a big noise like 'Boo-oo-oo-oo! Boo!'
maybe that's a giant, like it is in the story," said Flossie.
"Oh, I guess perhaps you heard the wind moaning in a cave," said Captain
Crane.
"No, there wasn't any wind blowing," Freddie said. And, surely enough,
there was not. The day was clear and calm.
"We heard the booing noise," Freddie said.
"Are you sure it wasn't a mooing noise, such as the cows make?" asked
Nan.
"There aren't any cows on Orange Island; are there, Cousin Jasper?"
asked Bert.
"I think not. Tell me, children, just what you heard, and where it was,"
he said to Flossie and Freddie.
Then the little twins told of walking along the hill that led up from
the beach and of seeing a big hole--a regular cave. They went in a
little way and then they heard the strange, moaning sound.
Cousin Jasper seemed greatly excited.
"I believe there may be something there," he said. "We must go and look.
If they heard a noise in the cave, it may be that it was caused by some
animal, or it may be that it was----"
"Jack!" exclaimed Bert. "Maybe it's Jack!"
"Maybe," said Cousin Jasper. "We'll go to look!"
Cousin Jasper and Mr. Bobbsey walked on ahead, with Flossie and Freddie
to show where they had seen the big, black hole. It was not far away,
but so hidden by bushes that it could have been seen only by accident,
unless some one knew where it was.
Outside the entrance they all stopped.
"Listen!" said Flossie.
It was quiet for a moment, and then came a sound that surely was a
groan, as if some one was in pain.
"Who's in there?" cried Cousin Jasper.
"I am," was the faint answer. "Oh, will you please come in and help me.
I fell and hurt my leg and I can't walk, and----"
"Are you Jack Nelson?" cried Cousin Jasper.
"Yes, that's my name. A friend and I were wrecked on this island, but I
can't find him and----"
"But he's found you!" cried Mr. Dent. "Oh, Jack! I've found you! I've
found you! I've come back to get you! Now you'll be all right!"
Into the cave rushed Cousin Jasper, followed by the others. Mr. Bobbsey
and Captain Crane had pocket electric flashlights, and by these they
could see some one lying on a pile of moss in one corner of the cavern.
It was a boy, and one look at him showed that he was ill. His face was
flushed, as if from fever, and a piece of sail-cloth was tied around one
leg. Near him, on the ground where he was lying, were some oranges, and
a few pieces of very dry crackers, called "pilot biscuits" by the
sailors.
"Oh, Jack, what has happened to you? Are you hurt, and have you been in
this cave all the while?" asked Mr. Dent.
"No, not all the while, though I've been in here now for nearly a week,
I guess, ever since I hurt my leg. I can crawl about a little but I
can't climb up and down the hill, so I got in here to stay out of the
storms, and I thought no one would ever come to me."
"You poor boy!" softly said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Don't talk any more now. Wait
until you feel better and then you can tell us all about it. Poor boy!"
"Are you hungry?" asked Freddie; for that, to him, seemed about the
worst thing that could happen.
"No, not so very," answered Jack. "When I found I couldn't get around
any more, or not so well, on my sore leg, I crawled to the trees and got
some oranges. I had a box of the biscuit and some other things that
washed ashore from the wreck after you went away," he said to Cousin
Jasper.
"Well, tell us about it later," said Mr. Bobbsey. "Now we are going to
take care of you."
They made a sort of little bed on poles, with pieces of the sail-cloth,
and the men carried Jack to the camp. There Captain Crane, who knew
something about doctoring, bound up his leg, and when the lost boy had
been given some hot soup, and put in a comfortable bed, he felt much
better.
A little later he told what had happened to him.
"After you became so sick," said Jack to Cousin Jasper, the others
listening to the story, "I walked to the other end of the island to see
if I could not see, from there, some ship I could signal to come and get
us. I was so tired I must have fallen asleep when I sat down to rest,
and when I woke up, and went back to where you had been, Mr. Dent, you
weren't there. I didn't know what had happened to you and I couldn't
find you."
"Men came in a boat and took me away," said Cousin Jasper, "though I
didn't know it at the time. When I found myself in the hospital I
wondered where you were, but they all thought I was out of my head when
I wanted them to come to the island and rescue you. So I had to send for
Mr. Bobbsey to come."
"And we found the cave, didn't we?" cried Freddie.
"Yes, only for you and Flossie, just stumbling on it, as it were," said
his father, "we might still be hunting for Jack."
"I'm glad we found you," said Flossie.
"So'm I," added Freddie.
"I'm glad myself," Jack said, with a smile at the Bobbsey twins. "I was
getting tired of staying on the island all alone."
"What did you do all the while?" asked Bert. "Did you feel like Robinson
Crusoe?"
"Well a little," Jack answered. "But I didn't have as much as Robinson
had from the wreck of his ship. But I managed to get enough to eat, and
I had the cave to stay in. I found that other one, and went into that,
as it was better than where we first were," he said to Mr. Dent.
"I made smudges of smoke, and set up signals of cloth," the boy went on,
"but a storm blew one of my poles down, and I guess no one saw my
signals."
"Yes, Captain Harrison did, but it was so stormy he couldn't get close
enough to take you from the island," said Captain Crane.
"And then we came on as soon as we could," added Cousin Jasper. "Oh,
Jack, I'm so glad we have found you, and that you are all right! You had
a hard time!"
"Yes, it was sort of hard," the boy admitted. "But it's a good thing
oranges grow here. I got some clams, too, and I found a nest of turtle's
eggs, and roasted some of them. I didn't like them much, but they
stopped me from being hungry."
"Well, now we'll feed you on the best in camp," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
"And I caught a turkle, once!" added Flossie.
"I guess you mean the turtle caught you," said Nan with a laugh.
But now Jack's troubles were over. As he was weak from not having had
good food, and from being ill, it was decided to keep him at the camp
for a short while. In that time the Bobbsey twins had a good time on
Orange Island, and when he was able to walk about, even though he had to
limp on a stick for a crutch, Jack went about with the children, showing
them the different parts of the cave where he had stayed. He could not
have lived there much longer alone, for his food was almost gone when
Flossie and Freddie heard him groaning in the cavern.
"And we thought you were a giant!" said Flossie with a laugh.
They had found, by accident, what the others had been looking for so
carefully but could not find. And Jack had no idea his friends were on
the island until they walked into the cave with the flashing lights.
"Oh, I'm glad we traveled on the deep, blue sea," said Nan, about a week
after Jack had been found. "This is the nicest adventure we ever had!"
These were happy days on Orange Island. Jack rapidly grew better, and
would soon be able to make the trip back to St. Augustine in the motor
boat. But it was so lovely on that island in the deep, blue sea that the
Bobbseys stayed there nearly a month, and by that time they were all as
brown as berries, including Jack, who had been pale because of his
illness.
So the lost and lonely boy was found, and he and Cousin Jasper were
better friends than ever. And as for the Bobbsey twins, though they had
had many adventures on this voyage, still others were in store for them.
But now we will say "Good-bye!" for a time.
THE END
BOOKS BY LAURA LEE HOPE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES
THE BOBBSEY TWINS
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA
THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON GRANDPA'S FARM
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING CIRCUS
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT LU'S CITY HOME
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP REST-A-WHILE
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE BIG WOODS
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON AN AUTO TOUR
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AND THEIR SHETLAND PONY
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN ARMY SERVICE
GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK