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"Well, you have made quite a discovery," said Mr. Bobbsey to the little twins. "Better cover the eggs up now, so the little turtles in them will not get cold and die."
"Are there turtles in them now?" asked Freddie.
"No, these eggs must be newly laid," Cousin Jasper said. "But if they are kept warm long enough the little turtles will come to life in them and break their way out. Would you like some to eat?" he asked Mr. Bobbsey.
The father of the twins shook his head.
"I don't believe I care for any," he answered. "I'm not very fond of eggs, anyhow, and I'll wait until we can find some that feathered chickens lay."
"Well, I'll take a few for myself, and I know Captain Crane likes them," said Cousin Jasper. "The rest we will leave to be hatched by the warm sun."
Mr. Dent took some of the eggs out in his hat, and then Flossie and Freddie covered the rest with sand again.
"We'll dig in another place, so we won't burst any more turtle's eggs," said the little boy, as he walked down the beach with Flossie, each one carrying a clam shell.
It was so nice on Palm Island that Mrs. Bobbsey said they would have supper there, before going back on board the Swallow to spend the night. So more things to eat were brought off in the small boat, and, as the sun was sinking down in the west, turning the blue waves of the sea to a golden color, the travelers sat on ...
"Maybe we could build a little campfire here and stay for a while after dark," suggested Bert, who felt that he was getting to be quite a large boy now.
"Oh, no indeed! We won't stay here after dark!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey. "Snakes and turtles and all sorts of things might crawl up out of the ocean and walk all around us on the beach. As soon as it gets dark we'll go back to the ship."
"Yes, I think that would be best," said Mr. Bobbsey. "When we get to the other island, where we hope to find Jack, it will be time enough to camp out."
"Shall we stay there long?" Bert wanted to know.
"It all depends on how we find that poor boy," answered Cousin Jasper. "If he is all right, and doesn't mind staying a little longer, we can make a camp on the island. There are some tents on board and we can live in them while on shore."
"Oh, that'll be almost as much fun as Blueberry Island!" cried Nan.
"It'll be nicer!" Bert said. "Blueberry Island was right near shore, but this island is away out in the middle of the ocean, isn't it, Cousin Jasper?"
"Well, not exactly in the middle of the ocean," was the answer. "But I think, perhaps, there is more water around it than was around your Blueberry Island."
After supper, which, like their lunch, was eaten on the beach under the palm trees, the Bobbsey twins and the others went back to the Swallow. The men working for the engineer, Mr. Chase, had not yet gotten the engine fixed, and it would take perhaps two more days, they said, as the break was worse than they had at fir...
"Well, we'll have to stay here, that's all," said Cousin Jasper. "I did hope we would hurry to the rescue of Jack, but it seems we can't. Anyhow it would not do to go on with a broken engine. We might run into a storm at sea and then we would be wrecked. So we will wait until everything is all right before we go sailin...
"It seems like being back home," said Mrs. Bobbsey, as she sat down later in a deck chair.
"Didn't you like it on the island?" asked Bert.
"Yes. But after it got dark some big turtle might have come up out of the sea and pulled on you, as one did on Flossie," and Bert's mother smiled.
"Well, no mud turkles can get on our ship, can they?" asked the little "fat fairy."
"No turtles can get on board here, unless they climb up the anchor cable," said Captain Crane with a laugh. "Now we'll get all snug for the night, so if it comes on to blow, or storm, we shall be all right."
It was a little too early to go to bed, so the Bobbsey twins and the grown folks sat on deck in the moonlight. The men of the crew, and the cook, sat on the other end of the deck, and also talked. It was very warm, for the travelers were now in southern waters, nearer the equator than they had ever been before. Even wi...
"It's almost too hot to go down into the staterooms," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "I wonder if we couldn't sleep out on deck?"
"Yes, we could have the mattresses brought up," said Cousin Jasper. "I have often slept on the deck of my own boat."
"Some of the crew are going to, they tell me," Captain Crane said.
"Then we will," Mr. Bobbsey decided. "It will be more like camping out. And it certainly is very hot, even with the sun down."
"We may have a thunderstorm in the night," the captain said, "but we can sleep out until then."
So the mattresses and bed covers were brought up from the stateroom.
"This is a new kind of camping out, isn't it?" remarked Flossie, as she viewed the bringing up of the bed things with great interest.
"It's a good deal like moving, I think," answered Freddie. "Only, of course, we haven't got any moving van to load the things on to."
"What would you do with a moving van out here on a boat?" demanded Bert.
"I could put it on another boat -- one of those flat ones, like they have down at New York, where the horses and wagons walk right on," insisted Freddie, thinking of a ferryboat.
"Well, we haven't any such boats around here, so we'd better not have any moving vans either," remarked Mr. Bobbsey, with a laugh.
"I don't want to move anywhere, anyway," said Flossie. "I'm too tired to do it. I'm going to stay right where I am."
"Oh, so'm I going to stay!" cried Freddie quickly. "Come on -- let us make our beds right over here," and he caught up one of the smaller mattresses. He struggled to cross the deck with it, but got his feet tangled up in one end, and pitched headlong.
"Look out there, Freddie Bobbsey, or you'll go overboard!" cried his brother, as he rushed to the little boy's assistance.
"If I went overboard, could I float on the mattress?" questioned Freddie, as he scrambled to his feet.
"I don't think so," answered his father. "And, anyway, I wouldn't try it."
Presently the mattresses and bedcovers were distributed to everyone's satisfaction, and then all lay down to rest.
For a time, Flossie and Freddie, as well as Nan and Bert, tossed about, but at last they fell asleep. It was very quiet on the sea, the only noise being the lapping of the waves against the sides of the Swallow.
Mrs. Bobbsey was just falling into a doze when there was a sudden splash in the water, and a loud cry.
"Man overboard! Man overboard!" some one yelled.
"Oh, if it should be one of the children!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey. For, no matter whether it is a boy, girl or woman that falls off a ship at sea, a sailor will always call: "'Man' overboard!" I suppose that is easier and quicker to say.
"Who is it? What's the matter?" cried Mr. Bobbsey, awakened suddenly from his sleep.
There was more splashing in the water alongside the boat, and then Captain Crane turned on a lamp that made the deck and the water about very light.
"Jim Black fell overboard," answered Mr. Chase, the engineer. "He got up to draw a bucket of water to soak his head in so he could cool off, and he reached over too far."
"Is he all right?" asked Captain Crane.