Page:Barbour--Joan of the ilsand.djvu/198

186 "They're still on the island, though, I suppose?" said Keith.

"No, confound 'em," replied Chester. "That's the worst of it. They've cleared out—swum to the Kestrel and rowed off in the ketch's small boat. God knows where they've gone to, but I hope they fall into the hands of some hungry cannibal king—"

"Don't say such horrible things, Chester. You know you don't mean it," Joan protested.

"Well, I'll cut out the cannibals then," the planter replied with a laugh, "but boats like that don't grow on bramble bushes out here, and if ever those two cut-throats fall into my hands again they'll have occasion to remember it as long as they live—"

A long-drawn-out call from a vessel's siren interrupted him.