“Ah tell yo’ dis am not de way,” said the negro in a very positive tone, “an’ any one what has any perspicuity in his haid will tell yo’ so.”

“I don’t know what that ’ere is, and I don’t believe I ever had any, but it ain’t the right road ‘cordin’ to the course,” returned the sailor.  “We sot out nothe-nothe-east, and this here course is due nothe, which ain’t at all proper.”

“Which way yo’ wan’ to go, Sailorman?” asked Buck.

“This here way, of course,” said Ben, pointing.

“Huh! an’ there ain’t no path there, nothin’ but briahs an’ big rocks an’ swamp.  How yo’ goin’ to get through there?  This here way is the right way, because it am plain to be seen that it am a thoroughfare, and has been promenaded by pedestrians before now.”

“I don’t care what has happened to it, and it may be a good road all the same, but it ain’t the course we sot out on, and so it’s the wrong one to take, and I ain’t going to take it.”

At this point Jack, Dick and Jesse W. came along, being much amused at the arguments offered by the disputants.

“How are you heading, Ben?” asked Jack in the soberest fashion.

“Nothe-nothe-east, sir,” said the old seaman, saluting.

“Change your course to north.”

“Aye-aye, sir, north it is,” said Ben.

“And follow in our wake in case you are needed.”

“Aye-aye, sir, follow in your wake it is, yes, sir.”

“You could not have persuaded that grizzled old tar that there was any course but the one he started on, no matter what the difficulties of his course were, but give him a new one, and he will take it without the least question.  That’s the sailor of it.”

“And they would have stood there arguing till the cows came home,” said Dick.  “You settled it in a moment.”

“And if we need them they are there.”

They kept on, now in the open and now in deep shade, having occasionally to cut their way, pushing on toward the hill, which Jack had determined to get to the top of, and now and then seeing it when they reached higher and more open ground.

They reached the top at length, and had a fine view of the island and of the sea, but could not see any other islands in the distance.

“We are on a lost island and no mistake,” said Percival.  “There is not another one in sight.  I wish I could make out a passage through the reefs, but there does not seem to be any.”

“We may find one unexpectedly,” said Jack.  “That often happens.  You hunt and hunt for a thing and don’t find it, and then you give up hunting and the first thing you know you find what you have been looking for without looking for it.”

“That sounds like a contradiction,” laughed Percival, “but I know what you mean.”

Leaving the hill after getting a good view of the surrounding sea and the island, the boys took a course which would lead them to the part of the reefs, which they had not before visited.