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THE CHILD CRUSOES
57
The club swished thru the air. At that instant there came the crack of rifles. The executioner's hand poised in mid-air, then opened nervelessly, the club falling to the sand, as he and several of his fellows sank upon the beach, dead. The others dropped to their knees, in sign of surrender.
Startled by the shots, the children looked up.
"Hooray!" shrieked Jack in a frenzy of joy.
"Hooray!" cried May, .gleefully.
For, a stone's throw from the shore and making straight for them, was a launch displaying the American flag and carrving a captain and marines of the U. S. Navy.
The captain leapt ashore and the children rushed to him. He gathered the forlorn, unkempt, tattered little beings into his arms and listened wonderingiy to the tale they tried to tell.
"You have lived here alone?" he asked, incredulously.
So they led him to the hut and then
to the carefully tended mound, on which flowers were growing, and his eyes were moist when he returned to the beach. Then he told them how he had happened to arrive in time to save them. When he explained that his men had been fishing and, in drawing in a net, had found the turtle with the inscription on its back, the little castaways beamed their grateful appreciation.
"So that turtle was a real messenger, after all," remarked May. As an after-thought she added with a sigh, "But he was awful slow!"
"Well, he got there in time, just the same!" argued Jack in defense of the turtle. "Gee! Didn't you think you was a goner when you felt that club go 'whir-r-r' over your head?"
"Yes, and so I squeezed my eyes tight and prayed awful hard!"
As they took their places in the launch the captain asked:
"Well, have you had enough of Crusoeing?"
"You bet!" answered Jack.
YES, INDEED, THEY HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF CRUSOEING