two in the afternoon
This was not a pleasant discovery , for we knew that the owners might be expected to put in an appearance at any moment after the gale ceased , in order to dig them up . `` Well , let us get on , and see what else we can discover , '' said Yorke , shouldering his rifle . `` The beggars ca n't get across from the mainland in such weather as this , so we need not be under any immediate alarm . '' By two in the afternoon we had thoroughly examined the whole of the four islands , but found no more houses , though on all of them we came across the inevitable fish-traps , and also a good-sized bamboo fishing raft , lying far up on the beach . This we at once carried off , and were about to hide in a thicket -- little thinking it would prove such a dangerous acquisition -- when Yorke suggested a better course . It would be a mistake , he said , to leave the raft so far from our sleeping place , instead of taking it away , when not only should we have it near us in case of a sudden attack by the natives , but we could utilise it for fishing , and that by removing it to the southernmost islet , which was farthest away from the fishing village on the largest island , we could easily conceal it from view . The natives , he argued , would be bound to search for it on the islet where they had left the thing , and would conclude that it had been washed away in the hurricane , and therefore were hardly likely to come down to the southern islet , the inner beach of which could be seen from nearly every point on the lagoon .