Chapter 15
The Crater
CONSTERNATION reigned in the camp, springing to life under me, when, I descended and imparted the news, I hardly recalled how I had come down from the height; my legs were trembling under me at each step. How were we to hope for deliverance from the island if the yacht was gone? We were marooned, sentenced to spend our lives on this generally unknown speck of land.
To the others, unattached, it was bad enough; to me, with the thought of Evelyn waiting for me in Brisbane, it seemed that the end of all things had been reached.
"It can't be true!"'cried Halpin.
"It's only too true," I retorted. "Do you think I merely took one look and then left? I searched all the water I could see and there is no sign of the yacht. Buler would not go away and leave us marooned. It
