CHAPTER XXII
SEARCHING FOR THE WILD MAN
With a cry of surprise Mr. Brown would have run after the strange being—whether he was really a wild man or not remained to be seen—but Mrs. Brown caught her husband by the arm and held him back.
“What’s the matter?” asked Mr. Brown. “I want to catch that fellow and find out who he is.”
“Had you better go?” asked his wife. “Would it be safe?”
“Why, I’m not afraid of him!” laughed the father of Bunny and Sue. “He’s afraid of us. See how he ran!”
“Yes, but there may be others besides him,” said Mrs. Brown. “They may be hiding in the bushes and they may have sent him on ahead to spy on us. Besides, if you go away from us, this man might circle around and scare Bunny and Sue.”
“We’re not afraid of being scared by a wild man,” declared the little boy.
“Perhaps I had better not leave you to chase this man,” said Mr. Brown, after thinking it over. “We’ll go back to our grass-hut camp and I’ll get Will and Sam to come with me. We’ll chase this fellow and find out who he is. He looks to me like a white man.”
“I think he is a white man,” agreed Mrs. Brown. “But perhaps he has been shipwrecked and living on this island so long by himself that he is out of his mind and has gone wild.”
“Maybe,” her husband admitted. “Anyhow, Will and Sam and I will search for him. Well, we’ve had some surprises to-day, and now it will be best, I think, to go back to our own little camp. Though if this wild man isn’t going to use his comfortable little house I’d like to have it to live in.”
“It is better than the hut,” Mrs. Brown said. “But we couldn’t come here until that fellow is caught,” and she waved her hand toward the underbrush in which the strange creature had vanished. “It’s his.”
Bunny and Sue looked with wide-open eyes in the same direction hoping, yet also half fearing, to catch another glimpse of the man with the long black hair and beard. But he did not show himself.
Climbing up over the ridge of low hills which ran down the middle of Cocoanut Island, the castaways were soon nearing the little bay where they had first landed.
“I hope Will and Sam have seen the Beacon and have signaled for her to take us off,” said Mrs. Brown.
“I hardly think the ship has returned,” Mr. Brown said. “If she had we would have heard her whistle. But she will be here by night or by to-morrow morning, I’m sure.”
“Anyhow, we’re having fun here,” said Bunny Brown. “I liked it on the rolling ocean, but I like it just as much on Cocoanut Island.”
“So do I,” agreed Sue. “And please, Mother, could I have some more cocoanut juice to drink?”
“Yes, when we get to the hut you may have come cocoanut milk,” her mother said.
Will and Sam, who had been busy making their hut comfortable as a place to spend the night in case the ship did not come back, were much surprised to hear about the little wooden house and about the wild man.
“He’s a shipwrecked sailor, like enough,” declared Will.
“We’ll see if we can catch him after lunch,” Mr. Brown remarked. “Poor fellow, he may have been frightened on seeing us.”
Some cocoanuts were opened and the milk drained off into cups for the children to drink.
Mrs. Brown prepared a simple meal, doing the best she could with the canned goods from the boat’s lockers. She looked it over and noted that they had enough to last them a week or more.
“But I hope we don’t have to stay here that long,” she told her husband.
“If our food gives out we can ask the wild man to let us have a share of his,” Mr. Brown said, with a laugh. “And he might be glad to have some one to keep him company.”
After talking the matter over it was decided to let Will and Sam go together to look at the deckhouse on the other side of the island, while Mr. Brown stayed with his wife and children near the grass huts. It was thought the two sailors could perhaps tell from what vessel the wooden house had been torn.
“And if you see the wild man try to find out who he is,” suggested Mr. Brown.
“We will,” promised the sailors as they started off after lunch.
Bunny wanted to go with them, and of course Sue clamored to go where her brother did. But their father and mother would not allow this.
“I’m not afraid of the wild man!” boasted Bunny.
“I wouldn’t be if Sam and Will would stand in front of me,” said Sue, at which the others laughed.
Left to themselves in the camp of the grass huts, Mr. and Mrs. Brown sat talking for a while on the strange happening that had made them castaways on Cocoanut Island.
“When I heard poor Mr. Pott telling how he had been shipwrecked,” said Mrs. Brown, “I little thought how soon we would be in the same plight.”
“We aren’t exactly shipwrecked,” objected her husband.
“It’s almost as bad,” she replied, smiling. “We’re marooned on this island with a wild man.”
“Maybe Will and Sam will tame him,” Mr. Brown said, with a laugh.
Bunny, having caught the name of Mr. Pott, came over to his father and mother to ask:
“Did we have any letters from Mr. Pott? Did he say he liked the apples I took to him?”
“And the flowers?” cried Sue. “I took flowers!”
“No, we haven’t heard from Mr. Pott,” said Daddy Brown. “The only way we could have heard while aboard the Beacon would have been by radio, and I guess poor Mr. Pott isn’t able to send any wireless messages.”
“Poor old man!” murmured Mrs. Brown. “I wonder whether he’s heard from his lost son?”
“And about the treasure!” added Bunny. “He wanted the treasure, too!”
“Yes. But I’m afraid he’ll never find either,” said Mr. Brown. The children were playing about on the sand, now and then tossing stones and shells into the water, when they saw their father looking at a tall, straight palm tree which grew near the shore. He went into the hut where they had slept and came out with a piece of canvas—a small end of the tarpaulin that had been put over the leaky hut.
“What you going to do, Daddy?” Bunny wanted to know.
“I was thinking of putting up a flag on this tree when Sam and Will come back,” was the answer.
“A flag?” cried Bunny. “What for? Is this the Fourth of July?”
“No,” answered his father with a laugh. “Though it is quite warm enough for that. No, I want a flag to fly in the wind so those on the Beacon will see it when they come back and know we are still here. It is to be a signal flag, not a regular flag.”
“I thought it looked like a funny flag,” replied Bunny. “It hasn’t any stars or stripes or anything.”
“No, we don’t need that for a signal flag,” said Mr. Brown, as he looked at the piece of weather-stained canvas in his hand. “Anything that will flutter in the wind will do. You see the Beacon may circle about and come back to the island from the other side. But if they come back on this side they will know where we are. Yes, this tree will make a good flag pole. I’ll have Will or Sam climb it and fasten on this piece of canvas when they come back.”
“Will they bring the wild man back with them when they come?” Sue asked.
“Perhaps,” said Mr. Brown.
Immediately Sue began to run toward the hut.
“Where are you going?” called her mother.
“I’m going to hide Elizabeth where the wild man can’t find her,” answered the little girl.
“Oh, don’t be silly!” said her mother. “The wild man is only a poor shipwrecked sailor, I’m sure, perhaps out of his mind a little on account of living alone so long. He won’t hurt you nor your doll, Sue. Don’t be foolish.”
This made Sue feel a little ashamed of herself, and she and Bunny played about the beach, again taking off their shoes and stockings and going in wading.
Meanwhile Will and Sam were searching for the wild man. They soon found the little wooden house, discovered by Bunny Brown, and went inside. No one was there, and the sailors began looking about to see if they could tell from what ship it had been torn by a storm.
While they were looking about them, not disturbing anything in the house, however, Will suddenly called:
“Hark! I hear a noise outside!”
“Maybe it’s the wild man!” said Sam.