They discovered that the island was about three miles long and a quarter of a mile wide, and that the shore it lay closest to was only separated from it by a narrow channel hardly two hundred yards wide.

They took a swim about every hour, so it was close upon the middle of the afternoon when they got back to camp.

They were too hungry to stop to fish, but they fared sumptuously upon cold ham, and then threw themselves down in the shade to talk.

But the talk soon began to drag, and then died.

The stillness, the solemnity that brooded in the woods, and the sense of loneliness, began to tell upon the spirits of the boys.