"We ought to raise a flag of distress," said Mary, "which might be seen if a ship comes near; but we haven't anything big enough." "Oh, yes, we have!" said Tommy. "If we tie our silk scarves together they will make a fine flag."
"But we haven't a flagstaff," said Elizabeth.
"There's a lovely one," said Mary, pointing to a tall slender tree that stood a little apart from the nearest clump of woodland, like a sentinel thrown out seaward. "Can you climb that, Tommy?"
"Rather! Father didn't like my climbing, but if I hadn't where should we be now?"
Elizabeth knotted the three scarves together. Then Tommy ran to the tree and climbed nimbly almost to the top, the others watching
her breathlessly. Soon the flag of red and white was fluttering in the light morning breeze.
"It'll be torn to shreds by the first storm," said Tommy when she descended. "Let's hope it will be seen before a storm comes." They spent the day much as they had spent the first one on the island; sitting on the beach, now and again visiting the cliff to take
another look across the sea, gathering bananas from the little plantation and wandering for a short distance along the shore.
"What shall we do when all the bananas are gone?" asked Tommy, as they ate their dinner. "The food we have in the boat won't last a week."
"We shall have to go exploring," said Mary. "I can't believe that these bananas are the only eatable fruits, and no doubt there are more bananas somewhere."
They looked up once more at the distant mysterious ridge.
"I don't know how you feel," said Tommy, "but I'm rather scared of going far from the beach. Who knows what we should find
among those trees?"
"We might go a little farther than we did yesterday," suggested Elizabeth. "Come along, then," said Tommy. "Oh, gracious! What's that?"
She pointed towards the ridge. The other girls looked, but saw nothing.
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"What is it?" asked Mary.
"I saw a large beast cross over that bare spot," replied Tommy. "I think you must have fancied it," said Mary.
"Rubbish! I tell you I saw it."
"But there aren't any large beasts in these islands," said Mary.
"How do you know? You think you know everything," said Tommy sharply, "just because you've read a few books. I tell you I did see it."
"It couldn't have been a large animal, all the same," persisted Mary. "You're an idiot," cried Tommy.
Elizabeth saw it was time to intervene. The girls' nerves were a little on edge.
"I dare say you are both right," she said tranquilly. "Tommy evidently saw something, and though there are no large native animals, Mary, perhaps it's an imported one. We can't tell but that there are people over there, and they might have anything, you know."
"Of course they might," said Tommy triumphantly. "It might be an elephant or anything."
And so the little storm blew over, but it made Elizabeth very thoughtful. As she lay awake that night, she resolved that something must be done to occupy their thoughts. "It will never do to idle away our time, as we've been doing," she said to herself, "or there'll be constant bickerings, and we shall all get slack and mopish. Oh, dear!"
And she did not sleep before she had made a plan.
CHAPTER VII
A LOCAL HABITATION
"Now, my dears," said Elizabeth as they sat at breakfast next morning, "I've got an idea." "Hurray!" cried Tommy. "What is it, Bess?"
"It's just this. We must act as if we were going to stay on this island for ever." Tommy gasped, and a look of dismay came into her eyes.
"Don't you think we'll be rescued, then?" she asked.
"Oh, I don't give up hope. We may be seen from a ship any day, or Uncle may come for us; but we can't depend on it. Plenty of men and boys have been shipwrecked like us on a lonely island, and have managed to shift for themselves. Why shouldn't we? We're used to outdoor work: at least, I am, and it would be an odd thing if we couldn't manage to make ourselves comfortable on an island like this, with half our work already done for us."
"What do you mean?" asked Mary.
"Why, if you're right about there being plenty of fruit--and I don't see why you shouldn't be--we shan't have to grow our food, and
that's the chief thing. So we shall have more time for other things. The first thing is to see just what we've got. Here's mine."
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She turned out her pocket, and displayed two handkerchiefs, a thimble, a small whistle and her jack-knife. "That's not a great deal," she said, smiling. "Now, Mary."
"There's my knife, and a hanky, and my little pen-knife, and hurray! my housewife."
And as she suddenly remembered that on the night before the storm she had been mending her uncle's clothes, the recollection almost moved her to tears.
"I've got the most," said Tommy, with a laugh. "Look here--scissors, hanky, some bits of string, my match-box, jack-knife, picture postcard of an aeroplane--wish we had an aeroplane!--and----"
She had unfolded a much-worn scrap of paper; now she folded it again and replaced it in her pocket. "What is it?" asked Elizabeth.
"It's only that stupid old receipt for butterscotch: no good to us here." They all smiled.
"Well, we can't boast of much in the way of personal possessions," said Elizabeth; "but we have the boat, two oars, a boat-hook, the
painter, a few cups and things, my string bag, that's a lucky find--and our macintoshes. More than Crusoe had."
"Not so much, Bess," said Mary. "You don't remember. I always think Crusoe was jolly lucky."
"I dare say you are right. Well, we've taken stock. That's one good thing done. Now what do you say to building a hut?" "What! With scissors and knives?" asked Mary.
"You'll see. We ought to try, I think. The weather is lovely now, but I shouldn't care about sleeping in the boat in a rainstorm, even under a macintosh. And you know how it rains in these tropical parts."
"It'll be great fun," said Tommy, "but I don't see how it's to be done."
"We'll have to cut down some saplings with our jack-knives. I don't quite see myself what we shall do next, but that will be a start, anyway, and I dare say ideas will come as we go along."
"That doesn't sound much like an architect," said Tommy, "but let's try. It will give us something to do and keep us from getting catty."
Elizabeth smiled as she saw her intentions thus realized.
"We must choose our site," she said. "Surveying, don't they call it?"
"All settlements are made near running water," said Mary, "so it ought to be near the stream."
They followed with their eyes the course of the bright little stream as it flowed out of the woodland down to the shore. There was no suitable spot for the hut near at hand, and to find one involved going farther than they had yet ventured to go. But having now
a definite object in view they found themselves a little more courageous, and springing up they set off along the bank of the stream towards the higher ground. They walked cautiously and in silence, looking about them with wide-open eyes, ready to flee at the slightest alarming sight or sound. Suddenly Tommy said in a whisper--
"Here! this is the very place."
She indicated a grassy knoll some ten or twelve feet above the bed of the stream. The girls stopped at its edge and looked at it. On the inland side it was fringed with a row of small trees; seaward the view was uninterrupted.
"It looks nice," said Mary. "Let's measure it."
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Elizabeth, being the tallest, stepped the grassy