“No, he was not, and she is in a cove somewhere on the other side of the rocks.  I don’t know how far up it goes, but there is one there.  I could not see the vessel either.”

“We must try to find it, Jack.”

“Yes, and we must get around these rocks.  There is no way of getting to the cove this way, unless we climb another high rock, and it is dangerous and we might be seen also.”

“Then let’s look for another way.”

They went back for a distance, and then began clambering over masses of other rocks they came to, getting higher and higher, but at last coming to a great mass of ledge rock, which rose sheer above their heads for twenty feet without a single projection upon which they could rest their feet and without a crevice where they might get a finger hold.

“There is no use trying to get up there, Jack,” murmured Percival in disgust.  “A goat could not climb up there.  Nothing without wings could manage it, in fact.”

“No, there is clearly no getting around this way, Dick.  We shall have to go back and try some other place.  There is a vessel on the other side of those rocks, but how to get a sight of her is the question.  I think we would better try to find the head of the cove.”

They went back, therefore, to where they had tried to ascend the rocks, and pushed on toward the interior of the island, finding the way difficult, but at length getting clear of the rocks and after struggling through a perfect jungle coming out upon one of the paths they had themselves made in their explorations.

“Well, we know where we are now!” exclaimed Percival with considerable satisfaction, “but we seem to be no nearer the head of the cove than before.  What are you going to do, Jack?”

“Look for the cove,” said Jack tersely.

“All right, my boy, I am with you,” said Dick with a chuckle, as if the idea was a most amusing one.

“Seems funny, doesn’t it?” said Jack, smiling.  “Well, we have had a lot of trouble, I admit, but you are not the one to give up when you undertake a task, and you know that I do not like to.”

“Not only that you don’t like to, Jack, but that you don’t do it.”

They set out toward the shore again, determined to find the cove if it were a possible thing, and looking for every possible clue to its whereabouts, and plunging into what seemed the most impassable thickets in their efforts, halting at nothing, in fact.

“We should have brought axes, Jack,” muttered Percival in disgust, as both boys paused at length, tired and hot in a little glade where the way was clearer than before, and yet having no assurance that they were anywhere near the place they sought.

“Yes, but that is just like a couple of boys who are bound to do a thing and don’t make all their calculations ahead.  Our hind thought is better than our forethought, Dick.”

“Yes, but we could not think of everything.  I think we have done pretty well, considering.”