| Share page |
|
282 THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON |
||
|
smoking rock, all alone ! destitute of everything! Can you believe it ? But the poor girl has begged me not to betray her sex, except to you and my mother, for she is dressed as a man, and is shy and nervous, although I assured her that all of us would welcome her gladly. I have brought her with me; she is near by, on a little island just beyond the Bay of Pearls; come and see her, but do not say anything to the others ; I want to give them a surprise.'
I agreed, and ordered them to hoist the sails, weigh anchor, and make ready to depart. Fritz, who had changed his dress and washed off his disguise, flew about, hastening his less eager brothers; then, jumping into his cajack, he piloted us through the shoals and reefs that were scattered along the coast. After an hour's sailing he turned off, and directed his course toward a shady island not far from the Bay of Pearls; we sailed close up to the shore, and fastened the pinnace to the trunk of a fallen tree. Fritz, however, was quicker than we, and he was on shore, and had entered a little wood in the middle of the island before we had yet landed. We followed him into the wood, and soon found ourselves near a hut, built like those of the Hottentots, with a fire burning before it, on which |
||