The day after her fever cleared Nancy was sitting beside Olan as he studied the Pacific map, which had been placed in the lifeboat along with a book of navigation instructions.
“Where is Koshu Island on this map?” she asked.
After a brief search he pointed it out with a grimy finger.
“Do you know of any coral-surrounded islands northeast of it?” she asked.
“There was one—about a day by water from Koshu, where they tell me my brother’s plane went down,” Nancy explained. “His gunner was made a prisoner by the Japs. He turned up at our hospital back there on Koshu. Soon as he’s able he’s going to guide a plane back to the island.”
“Nothing, except that the island was covered with a jungle. As far as Vernon knew there were no native villages there.”
“Entirely, so that no big boats could go close. But he said there were passages where small boats could enter the lagoons.”
“Twelve hours journey north of Koshu,” repeated Olan, while making some mental calculations. “We must have been somewhere in that neighborhood when we were struck.”
“We were,” he corrected. “Lord knows where we’re at now. A fair wind for forty-eight hours took us in the opposite direction.”
He pointed out where he surmised they had been sunk, and indicated the approximate direction in which the wind had taken them.
“I figure the group of reefs and islands you’re talking about is somewhere back here.”
“And northeast of Koshu,” she observed. “Wouldn’t it be safer to try to go back in that direction?”
“You’re optimistic, lady. Distances in a tub like this take a hundred times longer to cover than on our transport.”
“I know that. But we may as well be going somewhere definitely as drifting like this. We might even be able to locate the island where Tommy was marooned.”
“Any land, no matter what—a jungle would be a thousand times better than this,” said Hilda Newton.
It was two days later, however, before another breath of wind came to stiffen their sail. The heat was almost unbearable by day while the cold penetrated to their marrow at night. Nancy thanked her lucky stars that she had been wearing her overcoat at the time they were struck, and that Mabel had brought hers along. Hilda had not been so fortunate.
When the breeze stirred at last Nancy sat beside Olan, watching how he set the sail into the course he desired. It made little difference to any of the others what direction they took, so long as it brought an end to their misery. The very fact that they were moving boosted their morale.