Scraggs forgave him and murmured something about death
making them all equal.

"The next business before the syndicate," announced Mr. Gibney,
anxious to preserve peace, "is a search of this island for
water."

They searched all forenoon. At intervals they caught glimpses of
the two cannibals skulking behind sand-dunes, but they found no
water. Toward the centre of the island, however, the soil was
less barren, and here a grove of cocoa-palms lifted their tufted
crests invitingly.

"We will camp in this grove," said the commodore, "and keep guard
over these green cocoanuts. There must be nearly a hundred of
them and I notice a little taro root here and there. As those
cocoanuts are full of milk, that insures us life for a week or
two if we go on a short ration. By bathin' several times a day we
can keep down our thirst some and perhaps it'll rain."

"What if it does?" snapped Captain Scraggs bitterly. "We ain't
got nothin' but our hats to catch it in."

"Well, then, Scraggsy, old stick-in-the-mud," replied the
commodore quizzically, "it's a cinch you'll go thirsty. Your hat
looks like a cullender."

Captain Scraggs choked with rage, and Mr. Gibney, springing at
the nearest palm, shinned to the top of it in the most approved
sailor fashion. A moment later, instead of cocoanuts, rich,
unctuous curses began to descend on McGuffey and Scraggs.

"Gib, my _dear_ boy," inquired Scraggs, "whatever _is_ the
matter of you?"

"That hound Tabu-Tabu's been strippin' our cocoanut grove,"
roared the commodore. "He must have spent half the night up in
these trees."

"Thank the Lord they didn't take 'em all," said McGuffey piously.
"Chuck me down a nut, Gib," said Captain Scraggs. "I'm famished."

In conformity with the commodore's plans, the castaways made camp
in the grove. For a week they subsisted on gooneys, taro root,
cocoanuts and cocoanut milk, and a sea-turtle which Scraggs found
wandering on the beach. This suggested turtle eggs to Mr. Gibney,
and a change of diet resulted. Nevertheless, the unaccustomed
food, poorly cooked as it was, and the lack of water, told
cruelly on them, and their strength failed rapidly. Realizing
that in a few days he would not have the strength to climb
cocoanut trees, Mr. Gibney spent nearly half a day aloft and
threw down every cocoanut he could find, which was not a great
many. They had their sheath knives and consequently had little
fear from an attack by Tabu-Tabu and the king.