YOUR MOTHER AND I MUCH RELIEVED TO KNOW YOU ARE WELL CONGRATULATIONS ON A FINE JOB YOU WIN THE TRIP TO THE SOUTH SEAS WILL MEET YOU WHEN YOUR SHIP DOCKS
‘And next year the South Seas!’ exulted Roger.
‘Where I want to capture an octopus,’ said Hal.
‘And I want to go whaling.’
‘And I want to dive for pearls.’
‘And I want to get shipwrecked on a desert island!
And we should like to go on to tell how the two budding explorers got all they wanted, and more, during that fateful cruise among Pacific islands. But since there is no room for that story in these pages, the tale is told in another book, South Sea Adventure.
The next few days were busy ones. Crates had to be made for the animals that had not already been caged. The collection had to be insured — Hal estimated its value at £10,000. The cages had to be hoisted on board the Sea Gull. The good old Ark had to be sold. Food had to be stored for the collection during the voyage home.
But it all got done. And there were no happier boys in Brazil, or possibly in creation, than the two who stood at the rail as the Sea Gull pulled away from the piers of Manaos into the glossy black current of the Rio Negro. Behind them, in cages occupying half the fore-deck, squawked, growled and chattered their precious menagerie. The removal of Croc from the picture lifted a great weight from their shoulders. Six days down the Amazon and twelve up the Atlantic and they would have their collection safe home.
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