CHAPTER X
ACROSS THE LAKE
It was nearly ten months since the boys had been wrecked, and thrown on this island eighteen hundred leagues away from New Zealand. During this time, as we have seen, their position had gradually improved; and it seemed as though now they were at least secure of the necessaries of life.
But still they were abandoned on an unknown island! Would the help from without — the only help they could hope for— come before the end of the hot season? Would the colony have to endure a second antarctic winter. Hitherto there had been no illness. All, young and old, had been as well as possible. Owing to Gordon's care — and not without an occasional grumble at his strictness — no imprudence, no excess had been committed. But if the present was prosperous enough, the future could only be viewed with anxiety.
Briant's constant thought was to get away from Charman Island. But with the only boat they possessed, the yawl, how could they venture on a voyage that would be a long one even if the island did not belong to one of the Pacific Archipelagoes? Even if two or three of the boldest of the boys ventured in search of land to the eastward, how few were the chances that they would reach it! Could they build a boat large enough to carry them? Certainly not I That would be beyond their trength, for Briant's only idea of a boat was one that would carry them all.
All they could do was to wait, and work to make themselves comfortable at French Den. And, if not this summer, when they had almost enough to do to
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