With a heavy
heart he watched it out of sight, and then began another collection of
wood for his signal-fire.
When it was made, he again crossed the island, selected a blazing stick
from the camp-fire, and started to retrace his steps. By the time he
reached the log-hut he found it necessary to stop and renew his blaze
by building a fire in the rude chimney. By thus establishing a relay
station he finally succeeded in getting a blaze to the desired spot on
the channel side of the island, and in starting a brisk fire at that
point.
Here the boy would have stayed and watched for the craft that he fondly
hoped would come to his deliverance; but it was now a long time since
breakfast, and his hard work had made him very hungry. He might find
something to eat at that abandoned camp, which he had not yet examined.
At any rate he would go and look. So he piled logs on his fire until
satisfied that it would last for some hours. Then picking up a bit of
shingle from the beach, he wrote on it with the stump of a lead-pencil:
"I am on the island. Follow the trail and you will find me.----WINN
CASPAR."
This note he stuck in a cleft sapling, from which he first cut the top,
and which stood so near the fire that it was certain to attract
attention. Then feeling that he could do nothing more in that place,
he set forth in search of something with which to satisfy his hunger.
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