There were loud and angry voices in the woods, but the boys could see no one and went on slowly, farther out from shore so as to be out of danger in case any one appeared.

“A lot of drunken sailors would not be good company,” declared Jack.  “I would rather be alone.”

“It can’t be any one from the yacht, can it?”

“No, I don’t think so.  We have no Spaniards and Captain Storms brings his men up better than that.  Besides, if it were some of our men we would see a boat, and there is nothing.”

They still heard the voices at intervals as they rowed on and had no desire to enter the woods as long as the men were there.

“That’s a nuisance,” said Percival with a half-growl as they rowed on.  “I would have liked to go ashore there, but of course if there are a lot of swearing Spaniards hanging about it wouldn’t do.”

“I’d like to know what brought them here,” remarked Jack.  “We got in by the sheerest good luck and it does not seem possible that another vessel could have done the same.  Those things don’t happen twice.”

“Well, they are here, at all events, and it stops our going ashore.  I’d like to know if they saw us in the boat?”

“I don’t suppose so.  They did not show themselves and they would not have made so much noise if they had——­”

Just then the voices were heard again and the boys stopped rowing.

“There they are again!” muttered Percival.  “We may have trouble, Jack.”

The voices were very loud and the language used was not of the choicest, although, being in Spanish, it was not as offensive as it would have been in English, the boys not understanding much of what was said.

“Are they quarreling, do you suppose?” asked Percival.

“No, I don’t think so,” and Jack suddenly laughed.

“What are you laughing at?” asked Percival, somewhat impatiently.

“Listen a minute, Dick,” said Jack.

The voices had ceased, but presently they were heard again, closer than before, and then a big, gorgeously feathered parrot flew out of a clump of trees not ten feet from shore.

“There are your quarrelsome Spaniards, Dick,” laughed Jack, as another parrot joined the first.

“Well, I declare!” laughed Dick.  “Are you sure, Jack?”

“Yes.  The first time I heard them I was deceived, but just now I fancied there was something queer about those voices and I decided that there were parrots in the woods.”

“Yes, but Jack, Spanish is not the natural language of parrots and they must have heard it from men.  That proves that there are men on the island.”

“Or that there have been, at any rate, but we don’t know that there are any here at present.”

“Well, as long as we know that there is nothing more dangerous than a lot of parrots, suppose we go ashore and look about a bit.”

They found a good landing place where there was a shelving beach extending for some distance in either direction, and a clump of trees close to the water, where they tied the warp of the boat to keep it from floating away.