"Not me!" shouted Steve, like a flash.

"And I'm willing to stick it out!" added Owen, firmly.

"M-m-me t-t-too!" put in Toby, who was munching some cold biscuits they
had fetched along, and of which he was especially fond.

All of them looked at Bandy-legs, and he could not deny the appeal he
saw in the faces of his chums. It made considerable difference, too, now
that the bright daylight surrounded them; for even a timid boy can feel
brave between sunrise and sunset.

"I'm willing to hold on, if the rest do," he declared, "though it's
pretty tough if I'm goin' to be the only one that's in danger of bein'
chawed up by savage tomcats that roam about here. But, Max, if we go
nosing around to-day, I want to keep close to you, and that bully little
gun of yours, understand. Them's my conditions for agreein' to stand
pat, and stay here on this haunted island."

"Rats!" scoffed the unbelieving Steve; "haunted, your eye! You mark my
words, it'll all turn out just as common as anything, when we once get
the hang of things. Ain't it always that way, Max? Didn't it look easy
to the old fellers over at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, when
Columbus, he stood an egg on end by just breaking it a little?"

"That's what it did, Steve; and I'm glad to see how you take it,"
replied Max.

But when a little later they did start out to look around a little,
being more than curious, Bandy-legs was allowed to do as he suggested,