Part 28 (1/2)

This advice they followed. But there were anxious nights, and for three of them Walter and Cora divided the task of sitting up with Jack. Joe generously offered to do his share, as did Bess, Belle and Inez, but Cora would not let them relieve her.

So they lingered off the coast of St. Croix until the fever left Jack, departing from his weakened body, but making his mind at rest.

Then he began to mend.

CHAPTER XXI

A STRANGE TALE

”Well, Sis, I don't see what's to keep us here any longer. We might as well get under way again.”

”Do you really feel equal to it, Jack?”

”Surely,” and the heir of the Kimball family rose from the deck chair and stretched himself. The paleness of his cheeks for the past week was beginning to give way again to the faint glow of health.

”Sorry to get myself knocked out in that fas.h.i.+on,” apologized Jack.

”You couldn't help it, old man,” said Walter, sympathetically. ”The rest has done you good, anyhow.”

”Yes, I guess I needed it,” confessed Jack. ”All my nerves seemed to be on the raw edge.” There was no need for him to admit this, since it had been very evident since reaching St. Croix. The Danish physician had given good advice, and now Jack was even better than when he received the news of the foundering of the Ramona.

The balmy sea breezes, the lack of necessity for any hard work, the ministrations of Cora, and, occasionally, the other girls, set Jack in a fair way to recovery. Inez Ralcanto made many dainty Spanish dishes for the invalid, from the stock of provisions aboard the Tartar, and with what she could get from the island. Nothing gave her more delight than to know that Jack had gone to the bottom of each receptacle in which she served her concoctions.

”It is so good to see you smile again, Senor Jack,” she said to him, as she looked at him, on deck.

”And it's good to smile again, Inez,” he said to her.

”You'd better look out, Bess,” warned Walter. ”First thing you know, she'll cut you out.”

”Silly!” was all the answer Bess vouchsafed. But there was a tell-tale blush on her cheeks.

The anchor of the Tartar was hoisted, and once more she sailed away, this time on the cruise about St. Croix. That it would result in any news of the lost ones being obtained no one really believed, but they felt that no chance, not even the slightest, should be overlooked.

So they motored around the Danish island, stopping aft little bays or inlets where it seemed likely a raft or boat from a s.h.i.+pwrecked vessel might most likely put in. They found no traces, however, and what few natives they were able to converse with had heard of no refugees coming ash.o.r.e.

”Where next?” asked Walter, when they Had completed the circuit of St. Croix, and come to anchor once more off Christianstad, to lay aboard some supplies.

”St. Kitts,” decided Jack, who was again able to take his part in the councils. ”At least we'll head for there, and stop at any little two-by-four islands we pick up on the way. Isn't that your opinion, Cora?”

”Yes, Jack. Anything to find those for whom we are looking. Oh, I wonder if we shall ever find them?”

”Of course!” said Jack quickly, but, even as he spoke, he wondered if he were not deceiving himself. For when all was said and done, it seemed such a remote hope--and might be so long deferred, as, not only to make the heart sick, but to stop it's beating altogether. It was such a very slender thread that the beads of hope were strung on--it was so easy to snap. And yet they hoped on!

From St. Croix to St. Kitts is about one hundred and twenty miles, measured on the most accurate charts, and while it could have easily been made in a day's sail by the Tartar, it was decided not to try for any time limit, but to cruise back and forth in a rather zig-zag fas.h.i.+on.

”For that's the only way we'll have of picking up any small islands that might possibly be uncharted,” explained Jack. ”Most of the coral reefs here are noted on the maps, but there's a bare chance that we might strike an unknown one, or an island, that would serve as a haven of refuge for s.h.i.+pwrecked ones.”

His friends agreed with him, and Joe said it was probably the best plan that could be adopted.

So they were once more under way.