CHAPTER XXI

THE SIGNAL OF DISTRESS Tom Cameron and the _Trumpeter_ did not return to Pirate Island that terrible day of the tidal wave. As the wind decreased the overcast sky grew darker and darker, and finally, about nightfall, a terrific shower broke over the island and beat everything left standing flat to the ground—including the unfortunate human beings marooned there. But Johnson and his helpers had got the hut upright again and well braced so that it withstood this tempest. The tents were no shelter from this tempest. O…