"I tell you what we can do," said Pee-wee; "we can penetrate the interior, then we'll always be in the same place."
So they penetrated the interior and sprawled on the ground and chatted.
"When we find another member," said Pee-wee, "we'll have a full patrol and then we'll have to start a scout record and write down a description of the island and everything we see, because scouts have to do that because they have to be observant and they have to be accurate when they describe things."
"Would you say that this little tree is near the west coast of the island?" Townsend asked. "I've followed it around for the last half hour and I don't know where it is except it's here."
"Sure it is," shouted Pee-wee; "here is just as much a place as there."
"More," said Townsend. "There are three places--here, there, and everywhere; I've often heard them spoken of."
"That's just where this island is," said Brownie.
"Absolutely," said Townsend, "only it won't stay there. Is there anything more we can eat? Anything more that you don't have to _make_? My long tramp in search of the west coast has made me hungry again."
"I can make flapjacks," said Pee-wee; "I've got eight pounds of Indian meal."
"How far would I have to hike to digest them?" Townsend asked.
"You'd need a bigger island than this," said Brownie. "You couldn't digest a flapjack on anything smaller than South America."
"Give me a piece of chocolate," said Townsend, "and a couple of prunes."
"It looks nice up the river in the moonlight, doesn't it?" Brownie asked.
"You mean down the river," said Townsend.
"Don't try to find out where you're facing," said Townsend. "Here, eat a prune."
"I'm going to turn in pretty soon," said Nuts.
"That's a new place to turn," said Townsend. "We've turned everywhere but _in_. In the morning we'll turn out; then we will have turned everywhere."
"We're flopping downstream pretty fast," said Brownie; "that's one sure thing."
"I'm glad there's something sure," said Townsend. It was as good as a circus to see him sitting against the tree with his knees drawn up, glancing this way and that with a funny look of patient resignation on his face.
"What do you say we put the tent up in the heart of the interior? Then we'll be able to find it in the morning. The unknown heart of the interior seems to be the only place we can be sure of. At least it always stays inside. Hand me that grocery box from the extreme southern shore, will you? And another prune? The heart of my interior demands another prune. Do you know, Discoverer, what I think? I think I see a settlement. I don't know where it is because I don't know which way I'm facing, but I'm certainly facing a settlement--or at least I was a second ago. There it is again. I think we're nearing the coast of Japan; I see a Japanese lantern. That's funny. Did we pass the Philippines?"