roast strike you?" asked the captain.

"My, but wouldn't an oyster taste good? Do you s'pose there is one
within ten miles?"

Johnny laughed and said:

"What you standin' on? Must be a hundred barrels on 'em."

Dick looked down and was amazed to see that the whole reef was
composed of oysters--oysters of all sizes, oysters single, in small
bunches and in great masses.

"Woods are full of 'em," said the captain, and he pointed to the
mangrove trees that lined the stream, the lower branches of which
were burdened with bunches of oysters bigger than Dick's head. A
fire was made and branches of these trees containing bunches of
oysters were thrown on it. A few minutes later the branches were
taken off of the fire, with shells bursting open showing hot,
steaming oysters ready for the sharp sticks which took the place of
forks with the castaways. After Dick had filled himself with roast
oysters, he ate a few dozen raw, by way of a change, and then went
back to his roasting, until he was so full that he told Johnny that
he never wanted to eat again as long as he lived, at which Johnny
grinned. Only three hours later, as Johnny was sculling over a
shallow bank, he stopped work and began to thump the bottom with his
oar.

"What is it?" asked Dick.

"Bottom covered with clams. Reckon I'll pick up a few for Cap'n and
me. You said you didn't want to eat again, ever," replied Johnny.

But both of the boys went overboard and in a few minutes had put
more clams aboard the dingy than the whole party could have eaten in
a week.

The castaways camped on their second night at the mouth of Lossman's
River, where they had a famous clam-roast. They found a fisherman's
house where they got fresh water and a can to hold it, also some
cornmeal, with which Johnny made an ash-cake, or, as Dick called it,
Johnny-cake. The captain said it was the best thing he had ever
eaten, and Dick engaged him on the spot as a camping companion on
his hunt for his chum.

[Illustration: "A SILVERY, TWISTING BODY SHOT TEN FEET IN THE AIR"]

The next morning the boys slept till the sun had risen and the
captain awoke them to look upon a gorgeous picture seldom to be
seen. The unclouded sun was shining brilliantly and the eastern sky
clear and bright, but in the west a storm was gathering. There were
snow-clad peaks brilliant with sunshine, thunder-heads black as
midnight from which lightning was playing, while above and beneath
them all shone a perf