His surprise pleased the boys.
"What'll we have for breakfast?" asked Tom, and then added, "Suggest
something easy, for I'm cook, you know."
"Pancakes," cried Frank. "Those you made when we were leaving Petit Bois
were just about the best I ever ate."
"Pancakes it is, then," agreed Tom dashing to the kitchenette, where he
proceeded to prepare a breakfast of delicious pancakes and coffee. A few
freshly boiled shrimp added to the feast were welcomed by the boys. A
passing fisherman had offered them to Jack at just the right moment. The
boys did ample justice to the feast.
Leaving the foreman to superintend the matter of replacing the plank
where Wyckoff had bored the hole in his dastardly effort to sink the
Fortuna and her crew, the boys took a boat from the Fortuna and rowed up
to the leaning oak. From thence it was easy enough with Rowdy's aid to
trail the route to the site of the cabin in the clearing.
The embers had now cooled sufficiently so that the boys could search in
the ruins. For a moment they hesitated to explore the ashes, fearing
what they might find. A last they plucked up their courage and began a
thorough search. The task was not a pleasant one.
"What's this?" cried Tom. "Boys, I declare I smell burned flesh. That
odor hangs around here something fierce."
"Well if that big Doright was telling the truth," Frank argued, "the
boys got out of the cabin and were safe last night. How about it?"
"You can't tell anything by what that fellow said," Tom replied.
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