"Use the pork as bait, an' when you've caught fish enough for dinner knock off. We've got nothin' to cure 'em with, an' there's no sense in takin' more'n we can eat at one time. Walter is to stand watch on the north point, an' you can join him when your job is finished."
Then the two men and the boy started off around the shore to the only place on the key from which a passing craft could be seen, and the young fisherman, with some pieces of half-burned planks as oars, sculled the raft out into deep water.
A brisk walk of half an hour was necessary before a sightly spot for the sentinel could be found; and Joe said, as he and Bob continued on around the beach to search for oysters:
"It'll be a bit lonesome here, Walt; but you must do a share of the work. Keep your weather-eye lifting all the time, an' if you see any kind of a craft sing out till we answer."
Walter did feel a trifle nervous at being left alone so far from his companions; but he made a manly effort to appear brave, and said, as the men walked swiftly away:
"Don't trouble yourselves about me. I can stand watch as well as any one else, and if a sail does heave in sight you shall know it."
"That's right, lad; keep up your courage whatever may happen, an' everything will come out ship-shape!" Bob shouted cheerily as he and Joe disappeared around a clump of bushes, leaving Walter alone with the mournful lip, lip, lip of the sea ringing in his ears like a funeral dirge.
