Page:Barbour--Lost island.djvu/196

 but he said something about being a day's steaming off their course," said Dave, struggling to recall more of the ancient mariner's yarn.

"That helps in a way," the skipper commented. "But which direction had she drifted in—east or west!"

"I have no idea."

"Umph!" The captain was silent, lost in thought for a moment or two.

"Did he say anything particular about the island?" he asked at length.

"The wreck was in a lagoon," Dave said, "and there was a reef of rocks outside the lagoon, because they thought the ship must have struck those rocks and drifted over them afterward on a very high tide."

"We 're getting on," commented the skipper. "What else?"

"I only remember one other thing. There was a sort of hill on the island, and in the distance it seemed to be shaped rather like a camel's back."