CHAPTER XIII
AN ISLAND NOT ALTOGETHER DESERTED
"Hurrah! here we are on land once more! How good it feels to put one's foot on old Mother Earth after being on shipboard so long!"
It was Larry who uttered the words. He and a number of others had received permission to go ashore, to take a tramp around previous to filling the water-casks. In the party were Tom Grandon and Cal Vincent, and both were armed, the one with a rifle, and the other with a shotgun, ready to bring down anything in the shape of game which might appear.
"I enjoy the shore myself, Larry," answered Luke Striker, who was trudging along beside the boy, up the beach strewn high with shells and bits of broken coral. "But the cap'n says as how we must keep our eyes peeled for natives. Some of 'em ain't none too friendly in these parts."
"It looks as if there wasn't a human soul in
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