_Don't give up_! It makes it all the more exciting.

It's like--like--like--kind of--like running up an escalator! Don't stop! Keep it up, it's an escalator race!" It certainly made it "all the more exciting." As for the inhabitants of the island, they were carried away in more than one sense.

Townsend lay flat upon the ground in a spasm of silent laughter.

Several others of the new Alligator Patrol sat on the edge of the stern and rock-bound coast, their legs dangling in the water, and seemed in danger of falling in, so gymnastic was their merriment.

As for the occupants or the grandstand, they probably thought (if they were able to think at all) that ten cents was a small price to pay for such an exciting race.
Only one occupant of the fleeing island was up and about and fully conscious.