The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Strange Adventures of Eric Blackburn, by
Harry Collingwood
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Title: The Strange Adventures of Eric Blackburn
Author: Harry Collingwood
Illustrator: C.M. Padday, R.O.I.
Release Date: April 13, 2007 [EBook #21058]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADVENTURES OF ERIC BLACKBURN ***
Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
The Strange Adventures of Eric Blackburn
By Harry Collingwood
________________________________________________________________________
We found the original publisher's blurb for this book:
In Chapter I the reader is introduced to Eric Blackburn, fourth officer
of the ill-fated "Saturn", and hero of this story. The s.s. "Saturn" is
overtaken in mid-ocean by a sudden and irreparable disaster, Blackburn
being the sole survivor. Picked up by a sailing ship, the castaway
finds himself elevated to the position of skipper, and joins in a search
for hidden treasure. The search is successful, but on its way to port
the ship is wrecked on an uncharted island.
Blackburn and the dead captain's son reach land safely, and while
exploring have many adventures and experiences. They become acquainted
with a savage king, to whom they render aid in repelling attacks by huge
apes which are a continual menace
The treasure, which they have saved, proves a source of danger when two
doubtful characters, former member's of Blackburn's crew, turn up
unexpectedly. A settlement is effected, but complications arise and
disaster is narrowly averted.
Later, the hero and his companion leave their island home, carrying the
treasure with them.
________________________________________________________________________
THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF ERIC BLACKBURN
BY HARRY COLLINGWOOD
CHAPTER ONE.
THE CATASTROPHE.
It happened on our seventh night out from Cape Town, when we had
accomplished about a third of the distance between that city and
Melbourne.
The ship was the _Saturn_, of the well-known Planet Line of combined
freight and passenger steamers trading between London, Cape Town, and
Melbourne; and I--Eric Blackburn, aged a trifle over twenty-three
years--was her fourth officer.
The _Saturn_ was a brand-new ship, this being her maiden voyage. She
was a twin-screw, of 9800 tons register, 100 A1 at Lloyd's, steaming 14
knots; and she had accommodation for 432 passengers, of whom 84 were
first class, 128 second class, and 220 steerage; and every berth was
occupied, the steerage crowd consisting mostly of miners attracted to
Australia by the rumour of a newly discovered goldfield of fabulous
richness. The crew of the ship numbered, all told, 103; therefore, when
the catastrophe occurred, the _Saturn_ was responsible for the lives of
535 people, of whom about 120 were women and children.
I was officer of the watch, and was therefore on the bridge when it
happened, the time being shortly after six bells in the middle watch, or
say about a quarter past three o'clock in the morning. The weather was
fine, with so moderate a westerly wind blowing that the speed of the
ship just balanced it, the smoke and sparks from the funnel rising
straight up into the air when the firemen shovelled coal into the
furnaces; and apart from the long westerly swell there was very little
sea running. The motion of the ship was therefore very easy, just a
slow roll of four or five degrees to port and starboard, and an equally
slow, gentle rise and fall of the ship over the swell that followed us.
The moon was only four days old, consequently she had set hours earlier,
but the sky was cloudless, the air was clear, and the stars, shining
brilliantly, afforded light enough to reveal a ship at a distance of
quite three miles; it would be difficult, therefore, to imagine
conditions of more apparently perfect safety than those at the moment
prevailing aboard the _Saturn_. Yet destruction came upon us in a
manner, and with a suddenness, that was absolutely appalling.
I was pacing the bridge from one extremity to the other, keeping a sharp
look-out ahead and all round the ship; and when, at the port end of my
promenade, I wheeled on my return march, there was no sign that but a
few minutes intervened between us and eternity. But as I approached the
wheel-house I became aware of a sudden access of light in the sky behind
me, illuminating the entire ship in a radiance that increased with
incredible rapidity, while at the same moment a low humming sound became
audible that also grew in volume as rapidly as the light. Wheeling
sharply round, to ascertain the meaning of this strange phenomenon, I
heard the helmsman ejaculate, through the open window of the wheel-
house:
"Gosh! that's a big 'un, and no mistake; the biggest I ever seen;
and,"--on a note of sudden alarm--"it ain't goin' to fall so very far
away from us, neither! D'ye see that big fireball, sir, headin' this
way?"
As the man spoke I caught sight of the object to which he referred--and
horror chilled me to the marrow; for never before, I verily believe, had
mortal eyes beheld so awful an apparition. Broad over the port bow, at
an elevation of some forty degrees above the horizon, I beheld a great
white-hot flaming mass, emitting a long trail of brilliant sparks,
_coming straight for the ship_. It was increasing in apparent size even
as I gazed at it, dumb and paralysed with terror indescribable, while
the sound of its passage through the air grew, in the course of a second
or two, from a murmur to a deafening roar, and the light which it
emitted became so dazzling that it nearly blinded me as I looked at it.
As it came hurtling toward us it seemed to expand until it looked almost
as big as the ship herself; but that was, of course, an optical
illusion, for when, a second or two later, it struck us, I saw that the
fiercely incandescent mass, of roughly spherical shape, was some twelve
feet in diameter.
It struck the ship aslant, on her port side, a few feet abaft the funnel
and close to the water-line, passing through the engine-room and out
through her bottom. There was no perceptible shock attending the blow,
but the crash was terrific, while the smell of burning was almost
suffocating--which is not to be wondered at, since the mass was blazing
so fiercely that it set the ship on fire merely by passing through her.
So intense was the heat of it that, as it passed through the ship's
bottom into the water, we instantly became enveloped in a dense cloud of
hot, steamy vapour. A moment later it exploded under us, throwing up a
cone of water that came near to swamping the ship.
For a space of perhaps two seconds after the passage of the meteor
through the ship's hull the silence of the night continued, and then, as
though in response to a signal, there arose such a dreadful outcry as I
hope never to hear again; while the cabin doors were dashed open, and
out from the cabins and the companion-ways streamed crowds of distracted
men, women, and children, clad in their night gear, just as they had
leapt from their berths, the men shouting to know what had happened,
while the poor women and children rushed frantically hither and thither,
jostling each other, wringing their hands, some weeping, some screaming
hysterically, and some calling to children who had become separated from
them in the seething crowd.
The first man to run up against me was the skipper, who sprang out of
his cabin straight on to the bridge, exclaiming, as he clutched me by
the arm:
"What is it? What has happened? For God's sake speak, man!"
"The ship," I answered, "has been struck by an enormous meteorite, sir,
which has set her on fire, I believe, and has passed out through her
bottom. She has taken a perceptible list to starboard already."
At this moment I was interrupted by the chief engineer, who dashed up on
the bridge, demanding breathlessly: "Where is the captain?"
"I am here, Mr Kennedy. What is the news? Out with it!" jerked the
skipper.
"My engines are wrecked, sir; utterly destroyed," answered Kennedy; "and
the ship is holed through her bottom, down in the engine-room. The hole
is big enough to drive a coach through, and the room is half-full of
water already. If either of the bulkheads goes we shall sink like a
stone!"
At this juncture we were joined by the chief, second, and third
officers, who came upon each other's heels.
"Ah! here you are, gentlemen," remarked the skipper. "I was about to
send for you. I learn from Mr Blackburn that the ship has been struck
by a falling meteor which, Mr Kennedy tells me, has passed through her
bottom. According to him the engine-room is flooded; and he is of
opinion that if either of the engine-room bulkheads yields the ship will
go down quickly--in which opinion I agree with him. Even as it is, you
may notice that the ship is taking a strong list, and is very
perceptibly deeper in the water; therefore I will ask you, Mr Hoskins,"
(to the chief officer) "and you, Mr Cooper," (to the second) "to muster
the hands, proceed to the boat-deck, and clear away the boats, ready for
lowering, in case of necessity. You, Mr Stroud," (to the third
officer) "will mount guard at the foot of the boat-deck ladder and
prevent passengers passing up until the boats are ready and I give the
word. Mr Blackburn, go down and find the purser; tell him what has
happened, what we are doing, and ask him to keep the people quiet until
we are ready for them, and you can lend him a hand. Thank God, the
boats are all provisioned, ready for any emergency, while the water in
them was renewed only yesterday, so there is nothing to do but cut them
adrift and swing them outboard. That is all at present, gentlemen, so
go and get to work at once--why, who are those men on the boat-deck now,
and what are they doing with the boats?"
"Looks like the miners," answered Hoskins. "They're a rough lot, and as
likely as not we may have trouble with 'em. Ay, I thought so! Our
chaps are up there too, trying to send the others away, and they don't
seem inclined to go. Come along, Cooper, we've got to clear those
miners off somehow, or we shall get nothing done."
Therewith the four of us departed upon our respective missions, leaving
the captain in charge on the bridge.
The decks were now full of people rushing aimlessly hither and thither,
stopping everybody they met, and asking each other what had happened.
Meanwhile all the electric lights had been switched on, so that it was
possible to see who was who, and, as I quite expected, no sooner did
those poor distracted creatures catch sight of my uniform than I was
surrounded, hemmed in by a crowd who piteously besought me to tell them
what had happened, and if there was any danger. I had by this time
quite recovered my self-possession, and was therefore able to answer
them calmly and with a steady voice. Naturally, I did not tell them the
whole truth, for that, I knew, would precipitate a panic in which
everybody would get out of hand. I therefore told them there had been a
breakdown in the engine-room, which was being attended to; that there
was no immediate danger, but that I strongly advised them, purely as a
measure of precaution, to return to their cabins, dress themselves
warmly, and put into their pockets, or into parcels, any money or
valuables they might have in their baggage, so that in the event of
anything untoward happening, whereby we might be compelled to take to
the boats, they would be prepared to do so at a moment's notice. Some
of them listened to me and allowed themselves to be persuaded, but
others seemed afraid to leave the deck for a moment lest they should be
overtaken by calamity.
After all, their apprehension was not to be wondered at; there was
excuse enough for it, and to spare. There was a very strong smell of
burning and occasional puffs of smoke coming up from below, where the
engine-room staff were fighting the flames. The ship had taken a heavy
and steadily-increasing list to starboard; she was visibly settling in
the water; and, to crown all, the crowd of miners who upon the first
alarm had taken possession of the boat-deck were refusing to leave it,
and a brisk struggle between them and the seamen was proceeding, though
as yet no firearms were being used. But I knew Hoskins's temper; he was
by no means a patient man, or one given to much verbal argument. It was
usually a word and a blow with him, and not infrequently the blow came
first; I knew also that he habitually carried a revolver in his pocket
when at sea. I should not, therefore, have been at all surprised to
hear the crack of the weapon at any moment.
I had just managed to extricate myself from the crowd, and was making my
way toward the purser's cabin, when from the interior of the ship, and
almost beneath my feet, there came a deep _boom_, and I knew that the
after bulkhead of the engine-room had given way, and that the moments of
the _Saturn_ were numbered.
"No use to hunt up the purser, now," I thought; and I made a dash for
the boat-deck, to see if I could render any assistance there. But I was
too late; the sound of the bursting bulkhead, coming on top of the
previous alarms, was all that was needed to produce the panic I had all
along been dreading, and in an instant the decks were alive with frantic
people, all desperately fighting their way upward to the boat-deck,
where pandemonium now raged supreme, and where pistols were popping
freely, showing that Hoskins was by no means the only man in the ship
who went armed.
Now, what was the best thing for me to do? Could I do _anything_
useful? I stood on the outskirts of that seething, maddened crowd, and
watched men and women striving desperately together, trampling each
other remorselessly down; shrieking, cursing, fighting; no longer human,
but reduced by the fear of death to the condition of rabid, ferocious
brutes. No, I could do nothing: as well go down below and attempt to
stay the inrush of water with my two hands, as strive by argument to
restore those people to reason; while, as for _force_, what could my
strength avail against that of hundreds? No, they had all gone mad,
and, in their madness, were destroying themselves, rendering it
impossible to launch the boats, and so dooming themselves and everybody
else to death. It was awful! That scene often revisits me in dreams,
even to this day, and I awake sweating and trembling with the
unspeakable horror of it.
Meanwhile the ship was rapidly sinking; she had taken so strong a list
to starboard that it was only with the utmost difficulty I could retain
my footing upon her steeply inclined deck, while she was so much down by
the stern that the sea was almost level with the deck right aft.
Scarcely knowing what I did, acting with the inconsequence of one in a
dream, I clawed my way across the bridge that led from the upper deck to
the poop, and reached the taffrail, where I stood gazing blankly down
into the black water, thinking, I am afraid, some rather rebellious
thoughts. I must have stood thus for at least five minutes before I
realised that my hands were gripping a life-buoy, one of six that were
stopped to the rail. Still acting mechanically, and with no very
definite purpose, I drew forth my pocket-knife, severed the lashing,
passed the buoy over my head and shoulders, thrust my arms through it,
climbed the rail--and dropped into the water.
The chill of the immersion instantly brought me to my senses. In a
moment I realised that if I would save my life I must, without an
instant's delay, put the greatest possible distance between the ship and
myself before she foundered, otherwise when she sank--which she might do
at any moment--she would drag me down with her, and drown me. The
desire to live, which seemed to have been paralysed within me by the
suddenness of the disaster and the dreadful scenes I had subsequently
witnessed, re-awoke, and I struck out vigorously.
I know not how long I had been swimming--it seemed to me, in my anxiety
to get well away from the ship, to have been but a very few minutes--
when the tumultuous sounds of contention aboard the doomed _Saturn_
suddenly changed to a long wailing scream, and, glancing back over my
shoulder, I saw, upreared against the star-lit sky, the fore end of the
ship standing almost vertically out of the water, while at the same
instant another loud _boom_ reached my ears, proclaiming either the
bursting of the ship's boilers, the yielding of another bulkhead, or,
possibly, the blowing up of her decks; then, as I paused for a moment to
watch the conclusion of the catastrophe, the hull sank lower and lower
still in the water until within the space of a minute it completely
vanished.
The dreadful sight stimulated me to superhuman exertion, for I believed
I was still perilously near that great sinking mass; and indeed I had
scarcely covered another dozen yards when I felt the strong suction of
the foundering ship. I fought against it with desperate energy, and in
about a minute's time it relaxed, and I ceased swimming.
"Now," I asked myself, "what is the next thing to be done? I suppose it
was instinct that prompted me to get into this life-buoy and swim away
from the sinking ship; but in doing so have I not merely exchanged a
quick for a lingering death? If I had stuck to the ship I should have
gone down with her, and died with very little suffering, if any; while,
so far as I can see, I am now fated to drift about in this buoy until I
perish slowly and miserably of cold, hunger, and thirst."
It was a most depressing reflection, and for a moment I felt strongly
tempted to slip out of the buoy, throw up my hands, sink, and have done
with it. But no; love of life, self-preservation, which we are told is
the first law of nature, would not permit me to act foolishly; reason
reasserted herself, reminding me that while there is life there is hope.
I remembered that I was floating in a stretch of water that is the
highway for ships bound round the Cape to and from Australia and New
Zealand. It is a highway that, if not quite so busy as London's Fleet
Street, is traversed almost daily by craft of one sort or another, bound
either east or west; and something might come along at any moment and,
if I could but attract attention to myself, pick me up. Besides, I did
not really believe in "giving up". It had been instilled into me from
my earliest childhood that the correct way to meet difficulties is to
_fight_ them, and to fight the harder the more formidable appear the
difficulties. And the doctrine is sound; I had and have proved it to be
so, over and over again, and I meant again to put it to the test, then,
in the most discouraging combination of adverse circumstances with which
I had ever been confronted.
But the water was bitterly cold; if I remained submerged to my armpits,
as I then was, I could not survive long enough to get a fair chance. I
needed a raft of some sort buoyant enough to support me practically dry;
and, remembering that there were numerous loose articles such as deck-
chairs, gratings, and what not that would probably float off the wreck
when she sank, I turned and swam back towards the spot where the
_Saturn_ had gone down, hoping that I might be fortunate enough to find
something that would afford me the support I required. And as I struck
out afresh I was cheered and encouraged by the assurance that day was
not far distant, for, looking ahead, I saw that the sky low down toward
the horizon wore the pallor that is the forerunner of dawn.
By imperceptible degrees the day crept up over the eastern horizon, cold
and white; and, as soon as there was light enough to enable me to see
from the crest of one swell to that of the next, I began to look about
me in the hope of finding flotsam of some sort that would be useful to
me; also it occurred to me that there might be some who had remembered
that cork jackets were to be found in every state-room, and might have
made use of them; in which case I might fall in with other survivors,
who might be useful to me, and I to them, if we joined forces.
For several minutes my search of the surface of the sea proved
fruitless, at which I was distinctly disconcerted, for I knew that there
were many articles of a buoyant nature which had been lying loose about
the decks, and which must have floated off when the ship sank; and I was
beginning to fear that somehow I had got out of my reckoning and had
missed the scene of the catastrophe. But a minute or two later, as I
topped the ridge of a swell, I caught a momentary glimpse of something
floating, some fifty or sixty fathoms away, and, striking out vigorously
in that direction, I presently arrived at the spot and found myself in
the midst of a small collection of brooms, scrubbing-brushes, squeegees,
buckets, deck-chairs, gratings, and--gigantic slice of luck!--one of the
ship's life-boats floating bottom up! But of human beings, living or
dead, not a sign; it was therefore evident that, of the five hundred and
thirty-five aboard the _Saturn_ at the moment of the disaster, I was the
sole survivor.
Naturally, I made straight for the upturned life-boat; but recognising
that a bucket might prove very useful I secured one and towed it along
with me. Reaching the boat I was greatly gratified to find that not
only was she quite undamaged but also that she was riding buoyantly,
with the whole of her keel and about a foot of her bottom above the
surface of the water. Of course the first thing to be done was to right
the boat, and then to bale her out; and, with the water as smooth as it
then was, I thought there ought not to be much difficulty in doing
either. The righting of the boat, however, proved to be very much more
difficult than I had imagined. She was a fairly big boat and, floating
wrong side up and full of water, she was very sluggish, and for a long
time scarcely responded to my efforts; but I eventually succeeded, and,
with a glad heart, seized the bucket I had secured, hove it into the
boat, and climbed in after it, finding to my joy that, even with my
weight in her, the boat floated with both gunwales nearly four inches
above the surface of the water. Thus there would be no difficulty in
baling her dry; and this I at once proceeded to do, working vigorously
at the task, not only with the object of freeing the boat as speedily as
possible, but, still more, to restore my circulation and get a little
warmth into my chilled and benumbed body.
CHAPTER TWO.
THE "YORKSHIRE LASS."
By the time that I had baled the boat dry the sun was above the horizon,
the air had become quite genially warm, and my exertions had set my body
aglow, while my clothing was rapidly drying in the gentle breeze that
was blowing out from about north-west; also I discovered that I had
somehow developed a most voracious appetite.
Fortunately, I was able to regard this last circumstance with
equanimity, for the manager of the Planet Line of steamers had laid it
down as a most stringent rule that while the ships were at sea all boats
were not only to be maintained in a state of perfect preparation for
instant launching, but were also to be fully supplied with provisions
and water upon a scale proportional to their passenger-carrying
capacity, and each was also to have her full equipment of gear stowed in
her, ready for instant service. Now, the boat which I had been
fortunate enough to find--and which, by the way, seemed to be the only
one that had not been carried down with the ship--was Number 5, a craft
thirty-two feet long by eight feet beam, carvel-built, double-ended,
fitted with air-chambers fore and aft and along each side, with a keel
six inches deep to enable her to work to windward under sail. She was
yawl-rigged, pulled six oars, and her full carrying capacity was twenty-
four persons, for which number she carried provisions and water enough
to last, according to a carefully regulated scale, four days, or even
six days at a pinch. These provisions were all of the tinned variety,
and were stowed in a locker specially arranged for their reception
between the two midship thwarts. Thus there was no risk of the food
being damaged by salt water, on the one hand, or of being washed out of
the boat, on the other. Upon coming into possession of the boat,
therefore, I was not only so fortunate as to find an ark of refuge, but
also rations of food sufficient to last me ninety-six days.
Knowing all this--such knowledge being a part of my duty--no sooner had
I hove the last bucketful of water out over the gunwale than I opened
the food locker and spread the constituents of a very satisfying
breakfast in the stern-sheets of the boat; whereupon I fell to and made
an excellent meal.
As I sat there, eating and drinking, a solitary individual adrift in the
vast expanse of the Southern Ocean, I began to look my future in the
face and ask myself what I was now to do. In a general sense it was not
at all a difficult question to answer. The _Saturn_, that splendid,
new, perfectly equipped steamship, had gone to the bottom, taking with
her five hundred and thirty-four human beings; and, apart from myself
and the boat I sat in, there was nothing and nobody to tell what her
fate had been. I was the sole survivor of a probably unexampled
disaster, and my obvious duty was to hasten, with as little delay as
possible, to some spot from which I could report the particulars of that
disaster to the owners of the ship.
But what spot, precisely, must I endeavour to reach? As an officer of
the ship I of course knew her exact position at noon on the day
preceding her loss. It was Latitude 39 degrees 3 minutes 20 seconds
South; Longitude 52 degrees 26 minutes 45 seconds East; I remembered the
figures well, having something of a gift in that direction, which I had
sedulously cultivated, in view of the possibility that some day I might
find it exceedingly useful. In the same way I was able to form a fairly
accurate mental picture of the chart upon which that position had been
pricked off, for Cooper, our "second", and I had been studying it
together in the chart-house shortly after the skipper had "pricked her
off". As a result, I knew that the _Saturn_ had foundered some two
thousand miles east-south-east of the Cape of Good Hope; that
Madagascar--the nearest land--bore about north-by-west, true; with the
islands of Reunion and Mauritius, not much farther off, bearing about
two points farther east. These items of information were of course
valuable; but their value was to a very great extent discounted by the
fact that I had neither sextant nor chronometer wherewith to determine
the boat's position, day after day, nor a chart to guide me.
At this point in my self-communion I realised that alternative courses
were open to me, and I proceeded to give them my most careful
consideration, comparing the one with the other. And the more carefully
I examined them, the more difficult did I find it to come to a decision.
On the one hand, here was I, right in the track of ships bound east and
west; consequently I stood a very fair chance of being picked up at any
moment, when the ship's wireless installation would at once enable me to
make my report. On the other hand, in the unlikely event of my failing
to be picked up, I could dispatch a cablegram from, say, Port Louis,
Mauritius, immediately upon my arrival there; and the point which I had
to decide was whether I should at once steer north, or whether I should
remain where I was, and trust to being speedily picked up. I will not
weary the reader by repeating in detail the arguments, pro and con, that
presented themselves to my mind; let it suffice me to say that I
eventually adopted the second of the courses outlined above. And so
certain did I feel that this was the right decision that I actually
adhered to it for seven days, during which I sighted four steamers and
one sailing ship; but, as ill-fortune would have it, three of the
steamers and the sailing ship passed me at too great a distance to
permit of my intercepting them, while the fourth steamer--a big liner,
with three tiers of ports blazing with electric light--passed during the
night, within less than four miles of me; but I had no light with which
to signal to her, and thus I was passed unseen.
The liner passed me during the fifth night succeeding that of the wreck;
and during the following two days I saw nothing. As I watched the sun
go down on the seventh day that I had spent in the boat I said to
myself:
"Well, here endeth the seventh day of a most disappointing experience.
If, seven days ago, anyone had told me that I could hang about here in a
boat for a whole week, right in the track of ships, without being
sighted and picked up, I would not have believed it. Yet here I am,
and, judging from past experience, here I may remain for another seven
days, or even longer, with no more satisfactory result. I have spent
seven precious days waiting for a ship to come along and find me; now I
will go and see if I cannot find a ship, or, failing that, find land,
where I shall at least be safe from destruction by the first gale that
chances to spring up."
Thinking thus, I put up my helm, wore the boat round, and headed her
upon a course that I believed would eventually enable me to hit off
either Reunion or Mauritius, should I not be picked up beforehand.
That was a very anxious night indeed for me; by far the most anxious
that I had thus far spent since the destruction of the _Saturn_, for the
wind steadily increased, compelling me to haul down a first and then a
second reef in the mainsail, while--the wind and sea being now square
abeam--I was continually exposed to the danger of being swamped by a sea
breaking aboard. By constant watchfulness, however, I contrived to
escape this danger, and my eighth morning found the boat bowling along
to the northward and reeling off her six knots per hour, with a steady
breeze from the westward, a long, regular sea running, and a clear sky
giving promise that the weather conditions were unlikely to grow any
worse than they were then. But I had to stick to the mainsheet and the
yoke-lines, and do as best I could without rest, for the time being.
Fortunately, as the day wore on, the wind moderated, until by nightfall
it had dropped to such an extent that I was able to shake out first one
reef and then the other, while with the moderating of the breeze the sea
also went down until it was no longer dangerous.
I had now had no sleep for thirty-six hours, consequently I felt in sore
need of rest. I therefore hove-to the boat, coiled myself down, and
instantly sank into a dreamless slumber. It must have been about
midnight when I awoke. I at once let draw the fore-sheet, filled away
upon the course I had decided upon, and kept the boat going for the
remainder of the night.
The ninth day of my boat voyage dawned pleasantly, with the wind still
blowing a moderate breeze from the westward, a long, regular swell
running, and no sea worth troubling about. The conditions were
therefore quite favourable for a little experiment I desired to make.
Being only human, I could not avoid the necessity for securing a certain
amount of sleep, and, up to now, when I needed rest it had been my habit
to heave-to the boat and leave her to take care of herself, trusting to
that curious sailor-sense, which all sailor-men soon acquire, to awake
me should the need arise. But heaving-to meant loss of time; and having
already lost so much I was very reluctant to lose more, if such loss
could possibly be avoided. I therefore set the boat going on her
correct compass course, and then, releasing the yoke-lines, I
endeavoured to render the craft self-steering by adjusting the fore and
mizen sheets. It took me the best part of half an hour to accomplish
this to my complete satisfaction, but I did it at length and, this done,
I went aloft and took a good look round. There was nothing in sight--
indeed I scarcely expected to see anything in the part of the ocean
which I had then reached; I therefore descended and rested until dinner-
time, indulging in another nap until the hour for my evening meal, in
preparation for an all-night watch.
The weather had now become quite settled, and was as favourable as it
could possibly be to persons who, like myself, were engaged upon an
ocean voyage in an open boat. The wind still held steadily in the
western quarter, enabling me to lay my course with eased sheets, while
its strength was sufficient to push the boat along under whole canvas at
a speed of about five knots, with no need to keep one's eye continually
watching the lee gunwale. My only difficulty at this time was the lack
of a light to illuminate the boat compass at night, the can containing
the supply of lamp oil seeming to have gone adrift when the boat was
capsized. I was therefore compelled to steer entirely by the stars, and
I was sometimes disturbed by an uneasy doubt as to whether I might not
occasionally have deviated slightly from my proper course by holding on
to one particular star for too long a time. In all other respects I did
splendidly.
The morning of the tenth day of this remarkable but, on the whole,
uneventful voyage of mine in the life-boat dawned auspiciously, and the
daily routine into which I had settled began. I went aloft for a look
round, and then, the horizon being empty, I had breakfast; after which,
with the boat steering herself, I stretched myself out for a short
sleep.
I must have slept for perhaps two hours when some mysterious influence
awoke me, and I started up, gazing eagerly about me. There was still
nothing in sight from the low elevation of the boat herself, but being
awake I decided to have a look round from aloft. In another minute I
was straddling the yard of the main lug, from which position, as the
boat floated up on a ridge of swell, I caught a momentary glimpse of
something gleaming white in the brilliant sunshine right ahead. It
could, of course, be but one thing, namely, the upper canvas of a
sailing craft of some sort. I remained where I was, intently watching
that gleaming white speck until it had grown into the semblance of a
royal and the head of a topgallant sail. From time to time I also got
occasional glimpses of the upper part of another sail which I could not
for the moment identify; but ultimately, as I watched, the strange craft
seemed to alter her course a little, and then I made out the puzzling
piece of canvas to be the triangular head of a gaff-topsail; the vessel
was therefore, without a doubt, a brigantine. What I could not at first
understand, however, was the way she was steering; at one moment she
would appear absolutely end-on, while a minute or two later she would be
broad off the wind, to the extent of four or five points. It was
exceedingly erratic steering, to say the least of it, and I was
tantalised too by my inability to determine whether she was heading
toward or away from me; but eventually I decided that, since her masts
had hove up above the horizon just where they were, she must be heading
toward me. The only argument against this assumption was that she did
not appear to be rising rapidly enough to justify it; but she certainly
_was_ rising, although slowly, and that was enough for me in the
meantime. Without further ado, therefore, I slid down from aloft, went
aft, and seized the yoke-lines, saying to myself:
"I believe it's going to be all right this time. She is a sailing craft
and I am raising her, although very slowly. It will be afternoon before
I can get alongside her, but, please God, there will be no more open
boating for me after to-day."
That the craft in sight was indeed a brigantine became unmistakable as I
stood on, slowly raising her canvas above the horizon; and later on in
the day I made two further discoveries, of a rather peculiar character,
in connection with her. One was, that she was hove-to; the other, that
she was flying her ensign upside-down at the peak of her mainsail, the
latter circumstance indicating that she was in distress or required
assistance of some kind.
It was about three o'clock in the afternoon when the life-boat crept up
near enough to the brigantine to enable me to distinguish details; and
the first thing I observed was that a group of five or six men--
apparently forecastle hands--were grouped aft, curiously inspecting the
boat through a telescope as I approached. A little later, when I
arrived within a few fathoms of her, I learned, from the inscription in
white letters on her stern, that the craft was named the _Yorkshire
Lass_, and that she hailed from Hull.
As I drew up within hail I put my hands to my mouth, trumpet-wise, and
shouted:
"_Yorkshire Lass_ ahoy! I am a castaway, and have been adrift in this
boat ten days. May I board you?"
To my amazement, instead of replying, the group of men clustered on deck
aft turned to each other and seemed to hold a brief consultation.
Finally, after a short palaver, one of them hailed:
"Boat ahoy! I say, mister, are you a navigator?"
"Yes, certainly," I replied, much astonished at having such a question
addressed to me by a British seaman, instead of--as I had fully
expected--receiving a cordial invitation to come alongside; "I was
fourth officer of the _Saturn_, of the Planet Line of steamers running
between London and Melbourne--" and then I stopped, for instead of
listening to me they were all talking together again. At length, when
the life-boat had crept up close under the brigantine's lee quarter, one
of the men came to the rail and, looking down into the boat, remarked:
"All right, mister; come aboard, and welcome. Look out, and I'll heave
ye a line."
A couple of minutes later the life-boat, with her sails lowered, was
alongside, and, climbing the craft's low side, I reached her deck.
"Welcome aboard the _Yorkshire Lass_, mister," I was greeted by a great
burly specimen of the British "shellback", as I stepped in over the
rail. "Very glad to see ye, I'm sure. But what about your boat? She's
a fine boat and no mistake; but I'm afraid we'll have to let her go
adrift. She's too big for us to hoist her in; we've no place on deck
where we could stow her. But if there's anything of value aboard her
we'll have it out, eh, mister?"
"Certainly," I agreed. "There is still a quantity of preserved
provisions in that locker; there are the two water breakers; there is a
life-buoy--and that is about all. But, look here!" I continued; "if
something must be turned adrift, why not get rid of that long-boat of
yours, and hoist in the life-boat in her place? The latter is very much
the better boat of the two--there is indeed no comparison between them--
and I am sure she would stow very snugly in your long-boat's chocks."
"Ay," agreed the other, "I believe she would. And, as you say, she's a
lot better than the long-boat; she've got air-chambers, I see, and--in
fact she's a proper life-boat, and she's roomy enough to take all hands
of us if anything should happen. What say, chaps, shall us try it?"
This last to the other men, who had stood around listening to everything
that was said.
The party, five of them in all, slouched over to the rail and stood
looking down into the life-boat with an air of stolid indifference, as
she rose and fell alongside. Then they turned and looked inboard at the
long-boat, which stood upright in chocks, on top of the main hatch, with
the jolly-boat stowed, keel-up, inside her. Finally one of them said:
"Yah, ve'll do id; she's wort' de drouble. Gome on, poys, led's ged do
vork; we haven'd done moosh dese lasd dwo days, und id von'd hurd us.
Shoomp ub dere, zome of you und ged de sholly-boad oud of dad!"
"Now," thought I, "what sort of a craft is this that I've blundered
aboard of? She's Liberty Hall afloat, by the look of it--Jack as good
as his master! There seems to be something a bit queer here--something
that I can't quite understand at present, but I'll find out what it is
before long. Which of those fellows is the skipper, I wonder--or, if
neither of them is, as I am very much inclined to think, where is he?"
And then I suddenly recalled to mind the question--"Are you a
navigator?"--which had been put to me before I received permission to
come aboard. For a moment I thought of demanding an explanation before
permitting the life-boat to be hoisted in; but I changed my mind and
resolved to defer my investigation until later. I flattered myself that
if anything should prove to be really wrong aboard the brigantine I had
wit enough to enable me to deal with it.
Meanwhile, the five men, having summoned three others from the
forecastle to their assistance, got to work with the exasperating
deliberation characteristic of the British merchant seaman to be found
in the forecastles of small craft; and first of all they got the jolly-
boat down on deck and ran her aft, out of the way; then they cleared out
a number of warps, cork fenders, and other lumber from the long-boat,
lifted her out of her chocks, and finally, unshipping the gangway,
launched her overboard, fisherman-fashion, and dropped her astern,
riding to her painter. Then they got their mast and yard tackles aloft,
arranged the chocks in place on the main hatch, and with a tremendous
amount of fuss, with the assistance of snatch-blocks, the windlass, and
the winch, they contrived to hoist in and stow the life-boat that had
stood me in such good stead for nearly a fortnight. That done, all
hands held another somewhat lengthy and animated pow-wow on the
forecastle-head, at the conclusion of which the man who had given me
permission to come aboard came aft and, pointing to the life-boat,
remarked to me:
"I reckon we've made a very good job of that, mister, and I'm sure we're
all very much obliged to ye for the idee. She's worth a dozen of the
long-boat and quite worth all the trouble we've took to put her where
she is." Then, without waiting for any response, he stepped aft, peered
through the skylight, and, stepping to where the ship's bell hung, he
struck eight bells (four o'clock). Rejoining me as I stood watching the
long-boat, that had been cast adrift, he remarked, with a clumsy effort
at civility:
"Tea'll be coming along aft in about five minutes, and I reckon you'll
be glad of a cup. I s'pose you haven't been gettin' much hot food while
you've been moochin' about in that boat, have ye?"
"I have not," I replied. "It was impossible to do cooking of any kind,
as of course you will readily understand."
"Ah, well, ye'll be able to make up for it now," was the rejoinder, "for
here comes the steward, teapot and all. Step down below into the cabin,
and make yourself at home."
"Many thanks," said I. "By the way, are you the master of this vessel?
And I gather from your ensign being hoisted union-down that you are in
distress. What is wrong with you?"
CHAPTER THREE.
AN AMAZING STORY.
We were now passing down the companion ladder on our way to the cabin,
and as I finished speaking the man to whom I addressed my question, and
who had led the way below, motioned me to enter an open doorway at the
foot of the stairs.
Obeying the invitation, I found myself in a small, rather dark and
stuffy cabin, very plainly fitted up; the woodwork painted dark-oak
colour, the beams and underside of the deck planking overhead imparting
a little cheerfulness to the small interior by being painted white,
while the lockers were covered with cushions of much worn plush that had
once been crimson, but which, through age, wear, and dirt, had become
almost black. The place was lighted by a small skylight in the deck,
and two ports, or scuttles, on each side. At one end of the skylight
was screwed a clock, while to the other end was screwed a mercurial
barometer hung in gimbals; and immediately over the chair at the fore
end of the table hung a tell-tale compass. The table was laid with a
damask table-cloth that had seen better days, and, no doubt, had once
been white, while the ware was white and of that thick and solid
character that defies breakage. A well-filled bread barge, containing
ordinary ship biscuit, stood at one end of the table, flanked by a dish
of butter on one side and a pot of jam on the other; the tray was placed
at the starboard side of the table, and amidships, at the fore end,
there stood a dish containing a large lump of salt beef behind three
plates, with a carving knife and fork alongside them. To the chair in
front of these, or at the head of the table, the man who was acting the
part of host now waved a hand, mutely inviting me to take it.
"Certainly not," I said. "You are the master of the ship, I presume,
and, as such, this is of course your rightful place. Why should you
surrender it to me?"
"Ah, but that's just where you make a mistake, Mr--er--er--I forget
your name. No, I'm not the skipper; I'm the bosun, and my name's
Enderby--John Enderby. And this man,"--indicating an individual who at
this moment joined us--"is William Johnson, the carpenter--otherwise
`Chips'."
"Then, where is your skipper--and your mate?" I demanded.
"That's what we're in distress about," answered the boatswain. "Sit
down, sir, please, and let's get on with our tea; and while we're
gettin' of it I'll spin ye the yarn. That's why me and Chips is havin'
tea down here, aft, this afternoon. At other times we messes with the
rest of the men in the fo'c'sle; but as soon as you comed aboard we all
reckernised that you'd want to know the ins and outs of this here
traverse that we finds ourselves in, so 'twas arranged that me and Chips
should have tea with ye, and explain the whole thing."
"I see," said I. "Well, you may heave ahead while I carve this beef. I
can do that and listen at the same time."
"Yes," assented Enderby. Then, breathing deeply, he gazed steadfastly
at the clock for so long a time and with an air of such complete
abstraction that at length Chips, who was sitting on the locker
alongside him, gave him an awakening nudge of the elbow, accompanied by
the injunction:
"Heave ahead, man; heave ahead! You'll never get under way if you don't
show better than this."
"Ay, you're right there, my lad, I shan't, and that's a fact," returned
Enderby. "The trouble is that I don't know where to make a start--
whether to begin with what happened the night afore last, or whether
'twould be best to go back to our sailin' from London."
"Perhaps the last will be the better plan," I suggested. "If you start
at the very beginning I shall stand a better chance of understanding the
whole affair."
"Ay, ay; yes, of course you will," agreed the boatswain. "Well, it's
like this here," he began. "We left London last September--you'll find
the exact date in the log-book--with a full cargo for Cape Town, our
complement bein' thirteen, all told. Thirteen's an unlucky number,
mister; and as soon as I reckernised that our ship's company totted up
to that I _knowed_ we should have trouble, in some shape or form. But
we arrived at Cape Town all right; discharged our cargo; took in
ballast; filled up our water tanks, and got away to sea again all right;
and it wasn't until the night afore last that the trouble comed along.
Our skipper's name was Stenson, and the mate called hisself John Barber,
but I 'low it was, as likely as not, a purser's name, for I never liked
the man, and no more didn't any of us, for though he was a good enough
seaman he had a very nasty temper and was everlastin'ly naggin' the men.
"It appeared that he and the skipper was old friends--or anyway they
knowed one another pretty well, havin' been schoolfellers together; and
the story goes that some while ago this man, Barber, bein' at the time
on his beam-ends, runned foul of the skipper and begged help from him,
spinnin' a yarn about a lot of treasure that he'd found on an island
somewhere away to the east'ard, and offerin' to go shares if he'd help
Barber to get hold of the stuff. I dunno whether the yarn's true or no,
but the skipper believed it, for the upshot of it was that Cap'n
Stenson--who, I might say, was the owner of the _Yorkshire Lass_--
hustled around and got a general cargo for Cape Town, after dischargin'
which we took in ballast and sailed in search of this here treasure.
Well, everything worked all right until the night afore last, when
Barber, who was takin' the middle watch, went below and, for some reason
or another, brought the skipper up on deck. Svorenssen, who was at the
wheel, says that the pair of 'em walked fore and aft in the waist for a
goodish bit, talkin' together; and then suddenly they got to high words;
then, all in a minute, they started fightin' or strugglin' together, and
before Svorenssen could sing out or do anything they was at the rail,
and the pair of 'em went overboard, locked in one another's arms."
"Went overboard!" I reiterated. "Good Heavens! what an extraordinary
thing! And was no effort made to save them?"
"Svorenssen sung out, of course," replied the boatswain, "but he
couldn't leave the wheel, for 'twas pipin' up a freshish breeze on our
port quarter, and we was doin' about seven, or seven and a half knots,
with topmast and lower stunsails set to port, and of course we had to
take 'em in, clew up the royal and to'ga'ntsail, and haul down the gaff-
tops'l before we could round to; and that took us so long that at last,
when we'd brought the hooker to the wind, hove her to, and had got the
jolly-boat over the side, we knowed that it'd be no earthly use to look
for either of 'em. All the same, I took the boat, with three hands, and
we pulled back over the course we'd come; as near as we could guess at
it; but although we pulled about until daylight. We never got a sight
of either of 'em."
"What a truly extraordinary story!" I repeated. "And, pray, who is now
in command of the ship?"
"Well, I s'pose I am, as much as anybody--though there haven't been much
`commandin'' since the skipper was lost," answered Enderby. "But I'm
the oldest and most experienced man aboard, and the others have been
sort of lookin' to me to advise 'em what to do; and since there's ne'er
a one of us as knows anything about navigation I advised that we should
heave-to, hoist a signal of distress, and then wait until something
comed along that would supply us with a navigator. But now that you've
comed along we needn't waste any more of this fine fair wind, because I
s'pose you won't have no objection to do our navigatin' for us, eh?"
"That depends entirely upon where you are bound for," I replied. "Of
course I shall be very pleased to navigate the ship to the nearest port
on your way, but I cannot promise to do more than that. And you have
not yet told me where you are bound. Did I not understand that it is to
some island?"
"Ay, yes, that's right," answered the boatswain, "but,"--here he raised
his voice to a shout--"Billy, come here, my lad, and tell the gen'leman
what you knows about this here v'yage."
Whereupon, to my astonishment, a very intelligent-looking boy, of
apparently about eleven or twelve years of age, emerged from the pantry,
where it appeared he had been helping the steward, and stood before us,
alert and evidently prepared to answer questions. He was only a little
chap, fair-haired and blue-eyed, and his eyelids were red, as though he
had recently been crying; but there were honesty, straightforwardness,
and fearlessness in the way in which he looked me straight in the eye,
and an evident eagerness in his manner that greatly pleased me.
"This," said Enderby, by way of introduction, "is Billy Stenson, the
skipper's son. He haven't no mother, pore little chap, so he've been
comin' to sea with his father the last two or three years, haven't you,
Billy?"
"Yes, that's quite right, bosun," answered the boy.
"Well, now, this gentleman, Mr--er--dashed if I can remember your name,
mister!" proceeded Enderby.
"Blackburn," I prompted.
"Thank 'e, sir. Blackburn. Well, Billy," continued the boatswain,
"this here Mr Blackburn is a first-class navigator, havin' been an
orficer aboard a liner, and he'll be able to take us to Barber's
treasure island, if anybody can. But, of course, he'll have to know
whereabouts it is afore he can navigate the ship to it; and now that
your pore father's--um--no longer aboard, I reckon that you're the only
one who can say what's the latitood and longitood of it."
"But that's just what I _can't_ do, bosun," answered Billy. "I know
what the latitude of it is, but the longitude's another matter. Mr
Barber didn't know it; Father didn't know it; and _I_ don't know it."
"What!" I exclaimed. "Do you mean to tell me that your father actually
started out with the deliberate intention of looking for an island the
latitude only of which he knew?"
"Yes, sir," answered the boy, "that's right. Let me tell you how it all
happened. I know, because Father told me the story lots of times; and
besides, I've heard him and Mr Barber talking about it so often that
I'm not likely to forget a word of it. This is how it was:--
"Before Mr Barber met Father, this last time, he was mate of a Dutch
ship trading out of Batavia, collecting sandalwood and shell. They
called at a place named--named--Waing-- Do you mind, sir, if I get the
chart and show you the place on it? Somehow, I never can exactly
remember the names of these places, but I can point 'em out on the
chart, because I've listened and watched while Father and Mr Barber
talked it over together."
"Yes," I said, "by all means get the chart, my boy. I shall be able to
understand your story ever so much better with that before me."
Whereupon the lad entered a state-room at the fore end of the main
cabin, and presently returned with a chart of the Malay Archipelago,
which he spread open on the table.
"There," he said, pointing with his finger, "that's the place they
called at--Waingapu, in Sumba Island; and this pencil-mark Mr Barber
drew to show the track of the ship and the boat afterwards--as nearly as
he could remember. After leaving Waingapu the ship sailed along this
line,"--pointing with his finger--"through Maurissa Strait, up to here.
And here Mr Barber and the Dutch captain had a terrible quarrel and a
fight--I don't know what about, because Mr Barber didn't say, but it
ended in Mr Barber being turned adrift by himself in a boat, with a
small stock of provisions and one breaker of fresh water. The boat was
an old one, very leaky, and she had no sail, so Mr Barber could do
nothing but just let her drift, hoping every day that something would
come along and pick him up. But nothing came, and five days later he
found that his water was all gone, the breaker havin' been leaky. The
next thing that happened was that Mr Barker got light-headed with
thirst; and it used to make me feel awfully uncomfortable to hear him
tell about the things he thought he saw while he was that way. At last
he got so thirsty that he couldn't stand it any longer, and, bein' mad,
he filled the baler with water from over the side, and drank it. And
then he found that the water was _fresh_, and he drank some more, and
his senses came back to him, and, lookin' round, he saw that there was
land on both sides of the boat and that she was in a sort of wide river.
But, although the land was so plain in sight, Mr Barber was so weak
that he couldn't do anything; for while he was light-headed he'd hove
all his grub overboard and was now starving. So he just had to let the
boat drift with the wind; and after a bit she drove ashore. But even
then Mr Barber couldn't do anything but just climb out of the boat and
fling himself down upon the sand, where he slept until next morning.
"When he woke up he felt a bit better, but awfully hungry, so he got up
and, seeing a few trees not far off, he managed to crawl over to 'em,
and was lucky enough to find some fruit on 'em. He said he didn't know
what the fruit was, and didn't care, he was so awfully hungry that he'd
have eaten it, even if he'd known it was poison. But it wasn't; it was
quite good; and after he had eaten he felt so much stronger that he went
back to the beach and moored his boat to a big boulder, so that she
wouldn't drift away.
"Now that Mr Barber had found food and water he set about taking care
of himself, so that he might get strong again and be able to get away
from where he was--because, of course, he didn't want to spend the rest
of his days there. But he wanted to find out as much as he could about
the place; so as soon as he was strong enough he began to wander about a
bit, explorin', and in particular he wanted to have a look at something
that he thought might be a house all overgrown with creepers. And when
at last he was able to get to it he found that it was a very ancient
_ship_, that he thought must have drove ashore during the height of a
very heavy gale of wind, when the level of the sea surface was raised
several feet above ordinary, deeply flooding the low ground where he
found her.
"Of course Mr Barber climbed aboard and had a good look round, thinking
that he'd perhaps be able to take up his quarters aboard her until he
could get away from the place; but he found her timbers and deck
planking all so rotten that it wasn't safe to move about aboard her.
All the same, he gave her a good overhaul; and down in the run he found
a little room, and in it eight big chests all bound round with thick,
steel bands. With a lot of trouble he broke 'em open, and five of 'em
he found packed full of gold and silver things--coins, candlesticks,
images and things that he believed had been stolen out of churches, with
chains and rings and bracelets and things of that sort. And the other
three chests had in 'em all sorts of gems--diamonds, rubies, emeralds--
and oh, I forget the names of all the things he said he found in them;
but I remember he said that they looked as though they'd been broken out
of articles of jewellery. Two of the chests were full, chock-a-block,
and the other was about three-parts full; and he said that, altogether,
the treasure must be worth millions!
"So as soon as Mr Barber felt well and strong enough to get away from
the place, he caulked the seams of his boat, and his water breaker, with
a kind of cotton that he found growing wild, made a mat sail for his
boat out of grass, laid in a stock of fruit and water, and, taking a
handful of the gems along with him, went out to sea again. But before
leaving the place he got the meridian altitude of the sun, by setting a
stick upright in the ground and measuring the length of its shadow very
carefully several days running; and in this way he afterwards found that
the latitude of the wreck was about 3 degrees 50 minutes South. Then,
when he was satisfied that he'd got the position near enough to be able
to find it again, he set his sail and went out to sea.
"But he was unlucky again, for on that very night a gale sprang up, his
sail was blown away, and he had all his work cut out to keep the boat
from being swamped. Then he fell ill again and went crazy once more,
coming to himself again aboard a Chinese junk bound for Singapore. Of
course the first thing he did was to search for his little packet of
gems; but they were gone; and, although he strongly suspected the
Chinese of having stolen them, they swore that they had seen nothing of
them. At Singapore Mr Barber applied for help as a distressed sailor,
and, after waiting a bit, he was sent home in a ship bound for London.
Four days after he landed in London he met Father, who helped him by
giving him money and inviting him to take up his quarters, for a bit,
aboard the _Yorkshire Lass_. Then he told Father all about the
treasure, and they kept on talkin' about it every evenin', when the
day's work was done, until at last Father agreed to help Mr Barber to
search for the treasure, he and Mr Barber to go halves in everything
they found, and Mr Barber to come with us as mate. And--and--I think,
sir, that's all."
"And quite enough, too," I said. "Why, it is the most amazing story to
which I have ever listened. And do you really mean to say that your
father actually allowed himself to be persuaded into engaging in such a
wild-goose chase as that of hunting for a spot of which the latitude
only is known--and that merely approximately, I should imagine."
"Yes, indeed, sir, it is a fact," answered Billy. "I know, because
Father and Mr Barber drew up an agreement and signed it, Father keeping
one copy, and Mr Barber the other. Father's copy is in his desk now,
if you'd care to see it."
"Later on, perhaps," I said. "There are other and more pressing matters
requiring attention just now. This--er--unfortunate affair of the night
before last has, I suppose, upset all plans, and clapped an effectual
stopper on the treasure-hunting scheme, eh?" I asked, turning to the
boatswain.
"Oh no, sir, it haven't," answered Enderby. "It looked a bit like it,
first off, I'll allow; 'cause, you see, the loss of the Old Man and the
mate left us without a navigator, and none of us knew which way to head
the ship. But me and Chips, bein' the only two officers left, had a
confab together, and then we mustered the rest of the hands and put it
to 'em whether they'd all agree to what we two proposed. And what we
proposed was this: Barber had evidently persuaded Cap'n Stenson that
there wasn't no mistake about the treasure actually existin', and that
it might be found, with a bit of tryin', otherwise the ship wouldn't be
where she is now.
"Then there was the agreement between the two, by which the treasure--
when found--was to be equally divided between 'em. Both of 'em havin'
gone over the side, that agreement couldn't be carried out; but there
was Billy, here; and there was us, the crew of the ship; and what me and
Chips proposed was, first of all, to get hold of a navigator who'd agree
to join in with us, and then go and try to find the treasure; the
arrangement bein' that Billy, as his father's son, should have half of
it, and we--the crew and the navigator--should divide the other half
equally between us.
"There was a lot of palaver over it, naturally--you know, sir, what
sailor-men are--but at last everybody agreed; and then, since we didn't
know where to head for, we hove-to, waitin' for something to come along
whereby we could get hold of a navigator. Then, at last, along comes
you, and you havin' turned up, I s'pose there's no reason why we
shouldn't haul down our ensign, swing the head yards, and fill away to
complete the v'yage?"
"No," I said; "no reason at all why you should not do those things. I
advise you to fill on the ship at once, and steer as you were heading
when you had the misfortune to lose your skipper and mate. Do you know
what that course was?"
"Oh yes," answered Enderby; "the course was north-east, a quarter east."
"Very good," said I. "Let that be the course until I shall have had an
opportunity to take a set of sights to determine the ship's position. I
suppose Captain Stenson had a sextant, chronometer, and all necessary
navigation tables aboard?"
"Yes, sir," said Billy. "They're all in his state-room. If you'll come
with me I'll show them to you."
"Thanks," I said. "What I am chiefly interested in, just now, is the
chronometer. Do you happen to know when it was last wound, Billy?"
"Yes, sir," answered the boy; "last Sunday morning. Father used always
to wind it every Sunday morning directly after breakfast."
"Good!" I remarked. "Then everything will be quite all right. And
now, bosun, what about berthing me? Where can you stow me?"
"No difficulty at all about that, sir," answered Enderby. "The Old
Man's state-room is the place for you, because his instruments and
charts and books are all in there; and, as of course you'll want the
place to yourself, Billy can shift over into the mate's state-room,
which is also vacant."
"An excellent suggestion," I remarked.
"All right," agreed Enderby; "then we'll call that settled. Steward!"
And when that functionary appeared the boatswain continued:
"Joe, this is Mr Blackburn, our new skipper. You'll take your orders
from him in future; and--Joe, see that things are straightened up in
those two state-rooms, the beds made, and so on."
The steward very cheerfully assented, and Enderby and the carpenter then
rose to go on deck, quickly followed by myself. The two men went
for'ard and joined the little crowd assembled on the forecastle, to
whom, as I of course surmised, they forthwith proceeded to relate what
had passed in the cabin. Whatever it may have been, it seemed to afford
the hearers satisfaction, for they smiled and nodded approval from time
to time, as the story was being told; and when at length it was ended
they all came aft and, while one hand hauled down the ensign and stowed
it away, another stationed himself at the wheel, and the remainder
tailed on to the braces, swung the headyards, boarded the foretack, and
trimmed the jib and staysail sheets, getting way upon the ship and
bringing her to her former course; after which, without waiting for any
order from me, they set the port topgallant, topmast, and lower
studding-sails. This done, the boatswain and carpenter came aft to
where I stood and inquired whether what had been done met with my
approval; to which I replied in the affirmative.
"And now, sir, about the watches," remarked Enderby. "Before the night
afore last, the mate took the port watch, and I the starboard; but now
that the mate's gone, how would it be if I was to take the port and
Chips the starboard watch? Would that suit ye, sir?"
"Yes," I said, "that would be an excellent arrangement, I think. By the
way, how many do you muster in a watch?"
"Four in each, includin' me and Chips," answered the boatswain.
"Um! none too many, especially considering the part of the world to
which you are bound," I remarked. "You will have to keep a sharp eye
upon the weather, and call me in good time if you should be in the least
doubt as to what you ought to do. Has either of you ever been this way
before?"
They had not, it appeared.
"And what about your forecastle crowd?" I asked. "Are they all good,
reliable men? Some of them are foreigners, aren't they?"
"Yes," answered Enderby, lowering his voice and drawing me away from the
vicinity of the man at the wheel. "Yes, worse luck, our four A.B.s are
all foreigners. Not that I've got anything very special to say against
'em. They're good sailor-men, all of 'em; but the fact is, sir, I don't
like bein' shipmates with foreigners; I don't like their ways, and some
of 'em has got very nasty tempers. There's Svorenssen, for instance--
that big chap with the red hair and beard--he's a Roosian Finn; and
he've got a vile temper, and I believe he's an unforgivin' sort of
feller, remembers things against a man--if you understand what I mean.
Then there's `Dutchy', as we calls him--that chap that pushed hisself
for'ard when we hoisted in your boat--he's an awk'ard feller to get on
with, too; hates bein' ordered about, and don't believe in discipline.
He and Svorenssen will both be in my watch, and I'll see to it that they
minds their P's and Q's. The other two aren't so bad; but they'd be a
lot better if Svorenssen and Dutchy was out of the ship."
"Ah, well," I said, "we are five Englishmen to four of them. If they
should take it into their heads to be insubordinate I have no doubt we
shall know how to deal with them. And now, I should like to have a look
at the log-book. I suppose you know where it is kept?"
"Yes," answered Enderby, "the skipper used to keep it in his cabin.
Billy'll give it you, and show you all you want to see. He knows where
his father kept everything. Oh! and I forgot to mention it, but
supper'll be on the table at seven o'clock."
"Righto!" I returned as I wheeled about and headed for the companion.
CHAPTER FOUR.
I TAKE COMMAND OF THE "YORKSHIRE LASS."
"Billy, my boy, where are you?" I called, as I entered the cabin.
"Here I am, sir," replied the lad, emerging from what had been his
father's state-room. "Is there anything I can do for you, sir?"
Billy Stenson was certainly an amusing and very lovable little chap as
he stood there before me, alert and bright-eyed, reminding me somehow of
a dog asking for a stick to be thrown into the water, that he may show
how cleverly he can retrieve it. If Billy had possessed a tail I am
certain that at that moment it would have been wagging vigorously.
"Yes, Billy," I said. "I should like to see the ship's log-book.
Enderby tells me that you know where it is kept, and can find it for me.
And I should like another look at the chart that you showed me a little
while ago. Also, if you can put your hand upon that agreement between
your father and Mr Barber, I should like to look through it--with any
other papers there may be, bearing upon the matter. The story is a very
remarkable one, and I feel greatly interested in it."
"Yes, sir," said Billy. "I'll get you the log-book, and the chart,
_and_ the agreement. And I think you'd like to see Father's diary too,
sir. When he met Mr Barber, and they began to talk about goin' huntin'
for the treasure, he started to keep a diary, writin' down in it
everything that Mr Barber told him about it; and there's a drawin' in
it that Mr Barber made--a sort of picture of the place, showing how it
looked, so that they might know it when they saw it again."
"Ah!" said I. "I should certainly like to see that diary, if you care
to show it me. The perusal of it will be most interesting and will
probably tell me all that I want to know."
A few minutes later I was seated at the table, with the chart spread
open before me, the log-book open, and the diary at hand, ready for
immediate reference. The log-book, however, had nothing to do with the
story of the treasure; it simply recorded the daily happenings aboard
the brigantine and her position every noon, from the date of her
departure from London; and the only interest it had for me was that it
enabled me to approximate the position of the ship at the moment of the
tragedy. It had been written up to four o'clock in the afternoon of the
day on which the tragedy had occurred, while the log slate carried on
the story up to midnight. A few minutes sufficed to make me fully
acquainted with all that I required to learn from the log-book, and I
then laid it aside and turned to the diary.
This document was inscribed in a thick manuscript book, and appeared to
have been started about the time when the writer first began seriously
to entertain Barber's proposal to join him in a search for the treasure.
It opened with a record of the meeting between Barber and the writer,
and set forth at some length the story of Barber's destitute condition,
and what the writer did to ameliorate it. Then followed, in full
detail, Barber's story of his adventure culminating in the discovery of
the stranded wreck and the chests of treasure stowed down in her run,
with the expression of Barber's conviction that the ship had been a
pirate. It also recorded at length the steps which Barber had taken to
obtain the necessary data from which to calculate the latitude of the
wreck; and it was the ingenuity of the man's methods that at last began
to impress upon me the conviction that the story might possibly be true,
especially as it was illustrated by a sketch--drawn from memory, it is
true--showing the appearance of the land from the entrance of the river,
very much in the same way that charts are occasionally illustrated for
the guidance of the seaman.
This story was succeeded by a record of the successive stages by which
the negotiations between the writer and Barber advanced, winding up with
a final statement that on such and such a date an agreement had been
drawn up in duplicate and signed by the contracting parties, whereby
Stenson was to bear the entire cost of the expedition--recouping
himself, so far as might be, by securing freights along the route,
Barber undertaking to discharge the duties of mate during the voyage,
without pay; the proceeds of such treasure as might be found to be
equally divided between the two men.
The perusal of the diary fully occupied me right up to the moment when
the steward entered to lay the table for supper; and when I had finished
it I found myself regarding the adventure with very different eyes from
those which I had turned upon it to start with. To be perfectly frank,
when I first heard the yarn I had not a particle of faith in the
existence of the treasure, and quite set down the late skipper as a
credulous fool for risking his hard-earned money in such a hare-brained
speculation; but after reading the story as set out _in extenso_ and
with a very great wealth of detail, I felt by no means sure that skipper
Stenson, very far from being the credulous fool that I had originally
supposed him to be, might not prove to have been an exceedingly shrewd
and wide-awake person. In a word, I had begun to believe in the truth
of the story of the treasure, strange and incredible as it had seemed at
first hearing.
And this change of view on my part involved a corresponding change in my
attitude toward the adventure. My conversation with Enderby and Johnson
over the tea-table had left upon my mind the impression that I had been
invited by them, as representatives of the entire crew, to act as
navigator and assist in every possible way to secure the treasure, my
remuneration for this service to be one share of half the value of the
amount of treasure obtained. Now, Barber had expressed the opinion that
this value was to be reckoned in _millions_; but, the eight chests
notwithstanding, I regarded this estimate as enormously exaggerated, the
result, probably, of ignorance of values on Barber's part.
Nevertheless, assuming the value to be very considerably less, say half
a million--and I believed it might possibly amount to that--only a very
simple calculation was needed to show that if this sum were divided by
two, and one of those parts were awarded to Billy, as skipper Stenson's
heir, the remaining sum of one quarter of a million divided into eleven
equal parts--there being eleven prospective participants, including
myself--would yield to each participant nearly twenty-three thousand
pounds; a sum very well worth trying for. Viewing the matter in all its
bearings I finally came to the conclusion that, regarding it merely as a
speculation, it might be quite worth my while to throw in my lot with
these men.
The project certainly had its allurements, for it must be remembered
that I was then young enough to be thoroughly imbued with the spirit of
adventure. I was poor, and even the bare possibility of making over
twenty thousand pounds in a few months very powerfully appealed to me;
and finally, if I rejected this chance and made the best of my way back
home, there was the possibility that I might be out of employment for a
considerable period, while at best I could hope for nothing better than
another billet as fourth officer in a Planet boat. In fine, the more I
considered the boatswain's proposal, the better I liked it; but at the
same time some inward monitor whispered that it would be wise not to
manifest too keen a readiness to fall in with the men's proposals.
While these reflections were passing through my mind I noticed that the
steward, in laying the table for supper, was laying for one person
only--myself. But while this arrangement had its advantages, it also
had certain disadvantages which I regarded as outweighing the former. I
therefore bade him lay for the boatswain and the carpenter as well; for
I had sense enough to recognise the importance of keeping my finger upon
the pulse of the crew, so to speak, and I knew that this could best be
done by means of little confidential chats with the boatswain and Chips,
who were the men's representatives.
The steward presently brought along from the galley the chief
ingredients of the supper, consisting of a pot of piping hot cocoa and a
dish of steaming "lobscouse", to be followed, he informed me, by a jam
tart. Then I sent Billy up on deck to find Enderby and bid him come to
supper in the cabin.
During the progress of the meal the conversation was of a general
character, consisting chiefly of discussions concerning the weather, the
behaviour of the ship under various circumstances, and the relation of
certain not very interesting incidents connected with the voyage. But
after we had finished, and Chips had come down to take his supper while
Enderby took over the charge of the deck, the boatswain fell into step
alongside me as I paced fore and aft, enjoying the unwonted luxury of a
pipe.
"There's just one p'int in what was said at tea-time, Mr Blackburn," he
remarked, "that I feels a bit hazy about, and that I haven't been able
to make quite clear to the men. You remember that when I spoke about
you navigatin' the ship for us, you said you'd be willin' to do it _so
far as the nearest port_. That's about what it was, isn't it?"
"Yes," I replied. "That is what I said."
"So I thought," concurred the boatswain. "Well, sir," he continued, "do
that mean that you're unwillin' to take a hand in this here treasure-
huntin' game with us?"
"Oh, as to that," I said, "I really have not had time to consider the
matter, as yet. Besides, I do not quite know what it is that you men
propose. Let me know that, and I will give the matter my most careful
consideration."
"Ay, ay, yes, of course; that's quite right," agreed Enderby. "I'll
have a talk to the chaps for'ard, and hear what they've got to say about
it. And--about that `nearest port' that you mentioned, sir, had ye got
any particular port in your mind's eye?"
"N-o, I can scarcely say that I had," I returned--"or if I had, it was
probably Port Louis, Mauritius. But all my ideas are very hazy thus
far, you must understand, for at the present moment I do not know where
the ship is, and I shall be unable to discover her position until I can
take the requisite sights. Then we will have out the chart, prick off
our position, and discuss the matter further."
"Yes, sir; thank 'e," answered Enderby. "And that'll be some time to-
morrow, I s'pose?"
"Certainly," I agreed; "some time to-morrow--unless of course the sky
should be obscured by cloud, preventing the taking of the necessary
observations. But I think we need not seriously fear anything of that
kind."
"No, sir, no; not much fear of that," agreed Enderby; and therewith he
trundled away for'ard and joined a little group of men who seemed to be
somewhat impatiently awaiting him.
It was a pleasant evening. The sun was on the point of setting, and the
western sky was a magnificent picture of massed clouds ablaze with the
most brilliant hues of gold, scarlet, crimson, and purple, while the
zenith was a vast dome of purest, richest ultramarine. A fresh breeze
was blowing steadily out from about west-sou'-west, and there was a long
and rather high swell, overrun by seas just heavy enough to break in
squadrons of creaming foam-caps that would have meant an anxious night
for me had I still been adrift in the life-boat. Apart from those white
foam-caps the ocean was a wide expanse of deepest sapphire blue, over
which the brigantine was rolling and plunging at a speed of fully eight
knots, her taut rigging humming like an Aeolian harp with the sweep of
the wind through it. For several minutes after Enderby had left me I
stood gazing in admiration at the brilliant, exhilarating scene; then,
for the mere pleasure of stretching my legs a bit, after being for so
long cramped within the confined limits of the life-boat, I started upon
a vigorous tramp fore and aft the weather side of the deck, between the
wheel grating and the main rigging.
On the following morning, immediately after breakfast, I had a long talk
with Enderby, who came aft to lay before me the proposals of the men as
to the terms upon which I was to be admitted to partnership in the
adventure. These were, in brief, that in consideration of my
undertaking the navigation of the ship, I was to receive one-eleventh
part of that half of the treasure to be shared among the crew. So far
so good; I had no objection to that part of the proposal, but when we
came to the question of my status in the ship I learned that the four
foreigners insisted upon the brigantine being run upon strictly
socialistic lines: there was to be no skipper, no officers, no giving of
orders; the ship was to be worked by two committees consisting of the
two watches, who were to decide all questions as to making, shortening,
or trimming sail, while I was to have no authority whatever, no voice in
anything except just the determination of the courses to be steered.
"Well," I demanded, "what have you Englishmen to say to such a
proposal?"
"Oh, as to that," said Enderby, "me and Chips is dead against it. We
knows as it wouldn't work at all. Fancy me sayin': `Svorenssen, nip up
aloft and stow that there to'garns'l!' and him turnin' round and sayin':
`If you wants the to'garns'l stowed, nip up and stow it yourself!' Oh
no; it wouldn't never do."
"Of course it would not," I returned. "But what do the other Englishmen
think of it?"
"Why, I fancy they don't much care, one way or t'other," answered
Enderby. "Ye see, sir, they're an ignorant lot, and can easy be talked
over by chaps with the gift of the gab, like Svorenssen and Van Ryn.
They'd be all right if they was left to their selves, and was treated as
if they was men and not just dumb cattle at the mercy of a brutal
driver; but them Dagoes has a way of talkin' about one man being as good
as another that makes ignorant men feel dissatisfied with things the way
they are."
"Just so," I returned. "I've been shipmate with that class of man
before to-day, and I know from experience what mischief socialistic
doctrines can work in a ship's forecastle--and elsewhere. Now you can
go for'ard and explain to the men that if I am to remain in this ship to
navigate her and to find the spot where the treasure is supposed to be,
I will have no socialism aboard her. The conditions I insist on are
that I am to be skipper; that I am to issue such orders as I may deem
necessary for the safety of the ship and the welfare of all hands; and
that I am to be obeyed without question or argument of any kind. If the
men agree to those conditions, well and good; if not, I shape a course
for the nearest port, and leave the ship there."
"Right ye are, sir," returned Enderby; "ye may trust me to put the
matter to the chaps in a way that they'll understand; and I don't think
as there'll be any trouble to speak of. And if there is, I fancy that
me and Chips 'll be able to deal with it."
With that the boatswain walked away forward to convey my ultimatum to
the men, who were all gathered on the forecastle-head, evidently waiting
for him, while I turned to Billy, who was standing close by, and said:
"When your father took his sights, Billy, who used to note the
chronometer times?"
"Mr Barber, always," answered Billy; "and then he and Father used to
work out the calculations together. But if you want anybody to note the
times when you are taking your sights, Mr Blackburn, I can do it for
you."
"Are you sure you can do it quite accurately?" I asked.
"_Quite_ sure!" asserted Billy. "Just you try me, sir."
"Very well, I will," said I. "Come below, and let me see what you can
do."
Billy soon demonstrated that he was to be implicitly trusted in the
matter of noting the chronometer times while I took my sights, and, the
morning being gloriously fine, I had no difficulty in determining the
longitude of the ship, which I found to be 50 degrees 48 minutes 40
seconds East, while a meridian altitude of the sun, taken two hours
later, gave our latitude as 34 degrees 26 minutes 15 seconds South.
Then I got out the chart of the Indian Ocean, pricked off the ship's
position on it, and sat down to consider what should be the next step.
For, whether I decided to remain in the ship or to leave her, her
position, as now laid down on the chart, showed that a shift of helm
would be necessary. It did not take me very long to decide that in any
case I would take the ship into Port Louis Harbour, Mauritius, which
might be reached in a week, or less if the weather held favourable.
Thence I could report to the owners the loss of the _Saturn_. Also, if
I decided to quit the _Yorkshire Lass_ there, I should have the choice
of two routes home, namely by Messageries Maritimes, via Madagascar and
the Suez Canal; or by the Union-Castle Line, via Cape Town and the
Atlantic. If, on the other hand, the crew acceded to my conditions, and
I was to remain in the ship, to call at Port Louis would be deviating
but a mere trifle from a straight course for the east end of Sandalwood
Island, whence I would pass through Maurissa Strait and go over, as
nearly as might be, the ground that Barber was said to have travelled
before he struck the spot where he was supposed to have found the
treasure.
When at length I went up on deck again, Enderby was waiting for me.
"Well," I said, "have the people for'ard made up their minds what they
are going to do? I am rather anxious to know, because upon their
decision will depend my final plans."
"It's all right, Mr Blackburn," answered the boatswain. "Them two
chaps, Svorenssen and Van Ryn, seemed to have quite made up their minds
to have things all their own way; but me and Chips soon brought 'em up
with a round turn by tellin' all hands what you'd said. Says I: `Now
look here, you chaps. We've got the navigator we wants, and if this
here treasure place is to be found you may all bet your boots he'll find
it. But he won't have no socialism, no runnin' the ship by committees,
nor no nonsense of that sort; he'll be Mister Skipper, and don't none of
you forget it! Now, you was all quite satisfied when Cap'n Stenson
commanded the ship: what difference do it make to any of you whether
it's Stenson or Mr Blackburn what gives the orders? It don't make a
hap'orth of difference to e'er a one of ye! Very well, then; me and
Chips has been talkin' things over together and we've decided that,
havin' been lucky enough to get hold of Mr Blackburn, we ain't goin' to
lose 'im because of any socialistic tommy-rot; so if there's anybody
here as objects to Mr Blackburn's conditions, let 'im say so, and we'll
ask the new skipper to put in somewheres, and we'll shove the
dissatisfied ones ashore.'
"There was a fine old rumpus when I said that. The four Dagoes swore as
they wasn't goin' to be done out of their share of the treasure for
nobody, nor nobody wasn't goin' to put 'em out of the ship; and for a
minute or two it looked as though we was goin' to have a mutiny. But we
Englishmen all stuck together, the others backin' up me and Chips; and
at last, when the Dagoes seen which way the wind was blowin', they give
in, and said, all right, we might 'ave our own way, since we seemed so
stuck upon it. So there you are, sir; you're our new skipper, and if
the Dagoes gets obstropolous we'll just shove 'em ashore, even if we has
to maroon 'em."
"I scarcely think it will be necessary to adopt any such extremely
drastic step as that," said I. "If the foreigners are made to
understand that the rest of you will stand no nonsense from them they
will probably settle down quietly enough. If they do not--if they
manifest the least inclination to be troublesome--I will put them ashore
at Port Louis, Mauritius, at which port I intend to call in any case,
that I may report the loss of the _Saturn_, and send certain letters
home. It will take us very little out of our way, and if the Dagoes
learn that we are going to call in at a British port on our way, it may
steady them a bit and help them to see that their wisest plan will be to
settle down and behave themselves. Now I am going to shift the helm.
Haul up to Nor'-Nor'-East, and take a pull upon the lee braces."
During the ensuing six days we made excellent progress, the brigantine
revealing a quite unexpected and most welcome turn of speed, which
carried us to Port Louis exactly a week after I had boarded her. We
remained there four days, to enable me to dispatch a cablegram home and
receive a reply; after which, having meanwhile laid in a good supply of
fruit and a little fresh meat, we sailed again, shaping a course for
Maurissa Strait.
For the four days following our departure from Port Louis we did well;
then the breeze lessened in strength, became baffling, and finally died
away altogether, leaving us helplessly becalmed, except when for a few
minutes at a time some vagrant draught of air would come stealing along
the glassy surface of the sea, imparting to it an evanescent tint of
delicate blue; and then there would be a call upon the watch to man the
braces and trim the yards to meet the transient breathing, to the
muttered disgust of the men, who could see no advantage in labour that
resulted, in many cases, in moving the ship only to the extent of a few
fathoms. But it had to be done, for we were on the border-line between
the prevailing westerly winds of the Southern Ocean and the south-east
Trades, and to get into the latter the ship had to be jockeyed across
the intervening belt of calms. A curious fact in connection with this
time of trial to our patience--and it was a fact that caused me some
anxious speculation--was that the two men, Svorenssen and Van Ryn, who,
at the outset of my connection with them, seemed most likely to be a
source of trouble, were the two who grumbled least at the continual
calls to the braces.
It was on the afternoon of the fourth of these trying days that, as we
lay becalmed in the middle of a glass-smooth sea, the polished surface
became touched here and there with faint, evanescent patches of softest
turquoise-blue, appearing for a moment and then vanishing again. They
were the "cats-paws" that indicated a momentary stir in the stagnant
air, and the appearances of which were always greeted by the foremast
hands with execrations, for they meant "box-hauling" the yards--work for
what they regarded as a ludicrously inadequate result. But on this
occasion the cats-paws, instead of enduring for a few seconds and then
being no more seen for hours at a time, lingered for as long, perhaps,
as two or three minutes, then passing away only to be succeeded by
others coming from the same quarter and enduring a little longer than
their predecessors, so continuing until at length we not only got way
upon the ship but were able to maintain it during the lessening
intervals between one puff and another. Finally a moment arrived when
the cats-paws began to merge one into another, while the whole surface
of the sea down in the south-eastern quarter lost its hateful mirror-
like appearance and donned a tint of faintest, most delicate blue that
deepened, even as we watched, creeping steadily down toward us until it
reached the ship and, with a last gentle rustle of canvas, she yielded
to the impulse of the first breathing of the south-east Trades.
When at length the true breeze reached us it came away out from about
South-East by South, enabling us still to lay our course, on the
starboard tack, with the braces the merest trifle checked. Once fairly
set in, the wind rapidly freshened until, when we of the afterguard went
down to supper at seven o'clock that evening, a fiery breeze was humming
through our tautened rigging, and the hooker was reeling off her seven
knots, with the royal stowed, and a rapidly rising sea foaming under her
lee bow.
CHAPTER FIVE.
WE FIND THE TREASURE.
It was a grand evening when, after supper, I went on deck for my usual
"constitutional". The salt, ozone-laden breeze was just cool enough to
set one's blood coursing freely through one's veins and to fill one with
the joy of living; the ship was making good headway; and the sky over
our lee quarter was a gorgeous blaze of gold and colour where the sun
was sinking in the midst of a galaxy of clouds of the most wonderful
forms. It was like a yachting experience.
In those latitudes the glories of the sunset very quickly fade, and with
their disappearance night falls upon the scene like the drawing of a
curtain. So was it on the evening in question; but I had grown
accustomed to those rapid nightfalls, and for a few minutes I, immersed
in my own thoughts, was quite unaware of anything unusual in our
surroundings. As the darkness deepened around us, however, it suddenly
occurred to me that there was something strange in the appearance of the
water; instead of its colour deepening under the shadow of night, as
usual, it seemed to be becoming lighter, as though it was being diluted
with increasing quantities of milk, until, as I stood and watched it,
wondering, it became, first of all, snow-white, and then, as the
darkness continued to deepen and the stars appeared, the entire ocean,
from horizon to horizon, became a sea of luminous, molten silver, the
weird, unearthly beauty of which there are no words to describe. Yet,
beautiful as it was, the unusual, almost unique character of the
phenomenon invested it with an awe-inspiring element that was not very
far removed from terror, especially for the men on the forecastle, whose
anxious glances aft, and restless, agitated movements sufficiently
proclaimed their apprehension.
Presently Chips, who was in charge of the watch and who had been padding
fore and aft on the lee side of the after-deck, crossed over and
remarked:
"What's the matter with the water to-night, Mr Blackburn? Boy and man
I've used the sea a good twenty year and more, and never have I seen a
sight like this. Do it signify anything particular, think ye?"
"Nothing beyond a most unusual and exceedingly beautiful state of
phosphorescence," I replied. "I have not used the sea for anything like
so long a time as yourself, but I have seen something of the same kind
once before, though nothing like so brilliant and beautiful as this.
And it was not so very far from this spot that I saw it, while making
the run from Cape Town to Melbourne. It is due to the presence, in
quite unusual numbers, of the animalculae which produce the appearance
of phosphorescence in the water; but while under ordinary circumstances
those animalculae are only present in sufficient numbers to cause the
usual appearance of stars and luminous clouds in agitated water, they
are present here to-night in such incalculable myriads that the light
they emit, instead of being more or less detached, is merged into one
uniform blaze of the beautiful silvery radiance which we see. It may
last for several hours yet, but sooner or later it will become normal
again."
My explanation seemed to afford Chips considerable relief, and he
presently sauntered away for'ard, with the evident intention of allaying
the apprehensions of the forecastle hands; while my prognostication as
to the ending of the phenomenon was verified about an hour later.
There now ensued a full month and more during which we steadily plodded
our way across the Indian Ocean, close-hauled day after day, with
nothing more eventful than the occasional capture of a shark, or a
capful of wind, to break the somewhat wearisome monotony of the voyage,
during which I devoted an hour or two every day to the improvement of
Master Billy Stenson's education; also giving a considerable amount of
study to the late skipper's diary, in the endeavour to arrive at some
sort of conclusion as to the whereabouts of the spot where Barber's
alleged treasure was to be looked for. Taking Barber's determination of
the latitude of the place, 3 degrees 50 minutes South, as being
approximately correct, I ruled a pencil line representing that parallel
right across the chart and noted the various islands that it crossed.
Then, marking the spot where the man had been turned adrift by the Dutch
skipper, I strove to trace the course over which the boat had drifted,
taking into consideration the prevailing winds and currents, as set
forth in the Sailing Directions; and in this way I ultimately arrived at
the conclusion that the spot we were seeking would be found somewhere
between the meridians of 125 degrees and 135 degrees east longitude.
Still assuming Barber's story to be true, I reasoned that the fact of
the stranded ship having remained so long where she was, apparently
unvisited and uninterfered with--until the Englishman's arrival upon the
scene--argued that she was to be found on an island not only uninhabited
but also very rarely visited; and reasoning thus I was at length enabled
to make a fairly shrewd guess as to the most likely direction in which
to look for her; and in that direction I accordingly headed the ship.
It was about a month after our passage through Maurissa Strait that, as
we were working to windward against a light and fickle breeze, land was
sighted about three points on the weather bow. The time was close upon
eight bells in the afternoon watch, and the land sighted was a mere dot
of faintest blue showing just clear of the horizon. I had been
anticipating its appearance at any moment since I had worked out my
sights at noon and pricked off the ship's position on the chart, for the
spot of which we were in search was no unknown, mysterious island.
Careful study of Barber's narrative, as recorded in the late Skipper
Stenson's diary, had convinced me that the island was quite well known
and had been more or less thoroughly surveyed; and exhaustive study of
the diary and the chart combined had finally led me to the conclusion
that if the treasure really existed it would be found not very far from
the peak that had just hove in sight. But of that I should perhaps be
better able to judge when I could see a little more of it. I therefore
took the ship's telescope out of the beckets where it hung in the
companion, and, slinging it over my shoulder, made my way up to the
royal yard, where I seated myself comfortably and, steadying the tube of
the instrument against the masthead, brought it to bear upon the land to
windward. From my elevated position this now showed as a steep cone of
moderate height rising from one extremity of a long range of lofty hills
running away in a south-easterly direction until they sank below the
horizon.
So far, so good; the contours of the distant land, as revealed by the
lenses of the telescope, agreed in a general way fairly accurately with
a sketch--made from memory by Barber--in the late skipper's diary,
illustrating a passage descriptive of the appearance of the treasure
country as it had appeared to the man upon his departure from it. If,
as we drew nearer, a certain arrangement of white rocks outcropping on
the hill-side immediately below the cone should reveal itself, I should
then know, beyond all possibility of doubt, that I had found the spot of
which we were in search. But this condition of certainty could not
possibly be arrived at before the morrow, at the earliest, for the land
was quite fifty miles away, it was dead to windward, and the ship--
working up against a light breeze--was approaching it at the rate of
less than a knot an hour.
Happily for our impatience, matters shortly afterwards improved
somewhat, for with the setting of the sun the breeze freshened, and by
the end of the second dog-watch we were slashing away to windward at a
fine rate, reeling off our eight knots per hour, with the royal stowed.
The breeze held all through the night, and when I went on deck at eight
o'clock on the following morning the cone that I had viewed through the
telescope on the previous evening was only some fifteen or sixteen miles
distant, broad on the weather bow, and the arrangement of white rocks on
the hill-side--five of them forming a vertical line--which the diary
assured me was the distinguishing mark by which I might identify the
spot for which I was searching--was clearly visible in the lenses of the
telescope, while the mouth of the estuary was about five miles ahead.
"Yes," I said to Enderby, who was standing beside me as I closed the
instrument, "we are all right--so far; the opening to the nor'ard of
that curious hummock is the mouth of the estuary into which Barber
drifted while in a state of delirium, and the stranded hulk which is
supposed to contain the treasure stands, according to him, somewhere on
the southern shore. We shall have to make short boards along that
southern shore, keeping a sharp look-out for anything in the nature of a
stranded craft, anchor abreast it, and go ashore and give it a careful
overhaul. Thus far it looks as though there might be some truth in the
man's story. I have no longer any doubt that Barber actually entered
that estuary; but I shall still have to see that wreck before I am
finally convinced of her existence. Barber was admittedly crazy when he
landed yonder, and for all that we know to the contrary he may have
remained crazy all the time that he was there, and have imagined the
whole thing."
"Holy Moses!" exclaimed the boatswain, in consternation, "you surely
don't mean to say, sir, that after all this time you still has doubts
about the truth of that there treasure yarn, do ye? If we don't find
that wrack there'll be the dickens to pay in the forecastle. The men--
especially them Dagoes--'ll be that disapp'inted that there's no knowin'
what game they may try to play."
"How--what do you mean, boatswain?" I demanded sharply.
"Well, Mr Blackburn," he returned, "what I means is that if we don't
find the wrack the chaps'll be so disapp'inted that, in their rage, they
may rise upon us, the afterguard, and try to take the ship from us."
"What good would that do them?" I demanded. "If they were to attempt
so foolish a thing, and were to succeed, what could they do with the
ship? I suppose even they--dolts as they would prove themselves in such
an event as you mention--would not be idiots enough to suppose that they
could compensate for their disappointment by becoming pirates, eh?"
"Blest if I know what they mightn't believe if Svorenssen and the two
Dutchmen got talkin' to 'em," asserted the boatswain. "They're
wonderful talkers, all three of 'em, and they're everlastin'ly gassin'
about one man bein' as good as another, and freedom, and the rights of
man--_you_ know, sir, the sort of slush that such chaps spouts, and that
the shellback swallers as greedily as he would a pannikin of egg-flip!"
"Yes," I said, "I know. I have heard it all, over and over again, until
I have been sick and tired of listening to it; and I have wondered how
it is that sensible, level-headed British sailors, even though they may
not have had very much education, can swallow and believe in such froth.
However, I am very glad that you have mentioned the matter; I will keep
my weather eye lifting, and at the very first sign of trouble I'll act,
and to some purpose, too."
"That's right, sir; I hopes you will," approved Enderby. "And if action
should ever be needful you may depend upon me and Chips to back ye up.
In the meantime I'll keep my eyes and ears open, too, and let you know
directly I sees any signs of trouble brewin'."
When I descended to the cabin, a few minutes later, in response to the
steward's summons to breakfast, I found Billy Stenson already seated at
the table. Billy, I should explain, had, within two days of my arrival
aboard the _Yorkshire Lass_, been promoted from the position of pantry-
boy to that of passenger, in virtue of the fact that, through his
father's death, he had become the owner of the brigantine and the
inheritor of all prospective profits which might accrue in respect of
the present highly speculative voyage; he had also become my pupil, I
having undertaken to ground him in the rudiments of navigation.
"Good morning, Billy," I said. "Do you happen to know whether there are
any firearms, or weapons of any sort, aboard here?"
"Yes, Mr Blackburn," replied the lad. "When Father and Mr Barber
agreed upon this voyage they decided that they ought to have the means
of defending the ship, if necessary, and so Father bought a dozen rifles
with bayonets, and three brace of navy revolvers, with a good supply of
ammunition for both kinds of firearms. They're in two cases, down in
the lazarette."
"Do the men for'ard know they're aboard?" I asked.
"Oh no, sir, I don't think so," answered the lad. "They came aboard and
were stored away a week or more before the crew was shipped."
"Good!" I commented. Then, turning to Enderby, who also was present, I
said: "What you said on deck, a little while ago, suggests to me that it
will be a wise thing to have those cases up out of the lazarette without
further delay. We'll open them, give their contents an overhaul, and
clean and oil them, ready for immediate use, if need be. We may not
require them, but if on the other hand we should, the need will probably
be so urgent that there will then be no time for preparation. We will
have them up immediately after breakfast."
Upon my return to the deck I found that we were just entering the
estuary, the mouth of which was about three miles wide, the shore on
either side being quite low, with, here and there, narrow strips of
beach composed of sand and gravel. The low, flat shore on either side
of the inlet was backed by ranges of hills extending inland as far as
the eye could see, but whereas the low, flat country between the shore
and the base of the hills was less than a mile wide on the northern
bank, it ranged from five to twelve miles wide on the southern side.
The soil was everywhere grass-clad, the grass seeming to be very
luxuriant and about three feet high, while dotted about pretty thickly
all over the plains were clumps of palmetto, palms, trees of various
kinds--some of which would probably be the fruit-trees that had restored
Barber to life--and big clumps of bamboo and scrub. I anticipated that
it would be among those clumps of scrub that we should eventually find
the treasure hulk, if indeed the craft actually existed and was not the
figment of a madman's imagination; and I also foresaw that our search
for the hulk might easily be a very much more arduous and protracted
affair than I had anticipated, for it appeared to me that every one of
those clumps big enough to conceal the hull of a five-hundred-ton hulk
ought to be examined. There was no need, however, for us to begin our
search quite at once, for we were only entering the estuary, whereas,
according to Barber's account, the hulk lay some six or eight miles from
the entrance. This assumed distance was of course a very vague and
unreliable guide, and I therefore determined to take the ship up the
inlet about five miles, anchor her, and commence our search at that
point, gradually working our way upward. Meanwhile, the wind had come
away far enough out from the southward to enable us to hug the southern
shore as closely as we pleased; consequently although the breeze was
light we made good progress, and within an hour had reached a point at
which, I decided, our quest might very well begin. We therefore
anchored, furled all canvas, hoisted out the jolly-boat, and, making up
a search-party consisting of the four foreigners, Enderby, and myself,
went ashore and began our hunt for a craft in the existence of which I
had little or no belief.
Our chief difficulty was that we had no bearings to guide us. I
concluded that at the time of Barber's visit he was destitute of all
means to make notes or records of any kind, for his story was set down
entirely from memory, and was singularly barren of all information but
that of the most general character; there were no little illuminating
details to tell us whether we were or were not nearing our goal. The
one solitary fact from which I could draw a useful deduction was that,
at the time of Barber's arrival in the estuary, he was very ill and
weak, yet despite his feeble condition he was able to reach certain
trees, the fruit of which restored him to health. Now, from that fact I
deduced the inference that the particular fruit-trees to which Barber
owed his restoration must of necessity be at no great distance from the
beach, otherwise the man would not have had strength to reach them;
hence, to find the spot at or near which Barber landed, we must look for
a part of the plain where trees were growing within, say, two or three
hundred yards of the water's edge. There was just one such clump
abreast the spot where we had anchored, apart from which I could see no
others anything like so near the beach for a distance of fully a mile to
the eastward.
I confess that I entered upon this treasure-hunt hampered by a very
strong feeling of doubt. Of course I had ocular evidence of the
existence of such a place as Barber had described as that where the
treasure was to be found, for there it was, visibly before me. I was
also prepared to lend credence to the story of the stranded hulk,
strange as that story might seem, for I actually had personal knowledge
of even stranger happenings than that; but it was the existence of the
treasure itself--those steel-bound chests packed with gold, silver, and
gems--that I doubted. According to Barber's own story he was crazy when
he drifted into the estuary, and, although he may not have known it, he
perhaps remained crazy all the time he was there; and if it was indeed
true that he had stumbled upon a stranded ancient hulk, that very fact
may have so excited his disordered brain as to cause him to imagine the
treasure. Looking back at the episode now, after the lapse of years,
that, it appears to me, was very much my mental attitude with regard to
it; yet, my doubts notwithstanding, I was determined to leave no stone
unturned to test Barber's story to the uttermost; consequently when,
late in the afternoon of the following day, we actually came upon the
hulk, my chief feeling was one of surprise.
There was nothing whatever of an exciting or dramatic character in the
circumstances connected with our discovery; it was all absolutely
commonplace; we were not even molested by natives, of whom we saw no
sign from first to last. Having thoroughly searched, without result,
the entire area of the flat country for a space of eight or nine square
miles immediately opposite the spot where the brigantine was first
anchored, we got under way again and, under fore-and-aft canvas only,
moved the ship some three miles farther up the estuary, intently
studying the country on our starboard hand, meanwhile, through the
ship's telescope, on the look-out for any object suggestive of a
stranded hulk overgrown with creepers. And it was in this way that we
found her, the telescope enabling us to identify her at a distance of
fully a mile.
Arrived abreast of her, we again anchored the brigantine, and the same
search-party, under my command, once more landed and walked straight to
the hulk.
She lay high and dry, at a distance of about a quarter of a mile from
the beach, a dismasted craft of some seven hundred tons burden, built on
the lines of the old Spanish galleon, with a low bow and forecastle and
a lofty stern and after-castle; the great flat stern embellished with
much carving and the remains of a gallery, and surmounted by the iron
frames of three big poop lanterns. No doubt she had once presented a
very gallant picture of paintwork and gilding, traces of which were
discoverable about her here and there, but, apart from these, her whole
exterior had been reduced by sun and rain to a uniform tint of neutral
grey, except where moss and fungus had taken hold of her.
We boarded her without difficulty; but no sooner had we arrived below
than we found ample confirmation of Barber's statement as to her
rottenness, for, what with dry-rot and white ants, her deck planking and
beams had become the merest shells of wood, yielding freely in places to
the pressure of a man's weight, so that, in order to avoid accidents, we
had to move about aboard her with the utmost circumspection.
What was very much more to the point, however, was that we found not
only the ship but also the eight big chests of treasure, exactly as
described by Barber in the yarn given in the late skipper's diary. They
had all been broken open; but their contents appeared to be intact, and
as I very carefully examined them I arrived at the conclusion that they
had never been touched since Barber himself had left them to go in
search of the assistance he needed in order to secure possession of
their contents.
The discovery of the chests and, still more, the sight of their contents
was naturally productive of the utmost excitement, and, also quite
naturally, it at once roused all the greed that was latent in our
natures. So far as Enderby and I were concerned we were quite able to
control ourselves; but no sooner did the four Dagoes set eyes upon the
gold coins with which one of the chests was filled than they threw
themselves upon that chest, as starving wolves might throw themselves
upon a carcass, and proceeded to stuff their pockets with coin. This,
of course, could not possibly be permitted, and Enderby and I, drawing
our revolvers, compelled the quartette to replace in the chest every
coin they had snatched; but they yielded only under compulsion, and with
snarls, growlings, and muttered menaces which were only silenced by my
threat to maroon them on the spot if they showed the least sign of a
disposition to give further trouble.
The transfer of those eight heavy steel-bound chests with their contents
was a trying job, but nothing would induce the men to leave a single one
of them where they were for another night; they insisted on being
allowed to stick to their task until it was completed; and, by dint of
such strenuous effort as probably none of them had ever before exerted,
the task was completed a few minutes after sunset; following upon which
I caused the whole to be securely fastened up and struck down into the
lazarette. The forenoon of the next day was spent ashore gathering an
abundant stock of such fruits as the place afforded; and immediately
after dinner the jolly-boat was hoisted in, the anchor hove up, and the
_Yorkshire Lass_ stood out to sea.
CHAPTER SIX.
CAUGHT IN A TYPHOON.
Those who have never enjoyed the experience of suddenly coming upon a
treasure of enormous value, a substantial share of which one knows will
one day be one's own, will naturally suppose that the crew of the
_Yorkshire Lass_ would be one of the happiest and most contented little
communities on the face of the earth. And assuredly they ought to have
been, in so far at least as the prospective possession of great wealth
can confer happiness; for, little as any of us knew of the actual value
of the treasure we had so easily obtained, we knew enough to feel
assured that, when the time for division should arrive, we should each
be rich enough to be independent, for the rest of our lives, of any need
to work for a living. But, on the contrary, as a matter of fact the
acquisition of the treasure gave rise to a condition of restiveness and
discontent that caused me grave uneasiness.
Not that I was greatly surprised. From the moment when I first climbed
in over the brigantine's rail from the _Saturn's_ life-boat I recognised
that the presence of the four Dagoes in the ship's company was likely to
breed discord, but it was not until I witnessed the mad covetousness
with which they flung themselves upon the chest containing coin, and
proceeded to help themselves regardless of the rights of us others, that
I actually began to scent real, serious trouble; for I then foresaw
that, having once glimpsed the treasure, those men would never more be
content until it was actually theirs to squander in the debauchery that
they called pleasure.
The trouble which I anticipated developed within twenty-four hours of
our departure from the estuary, first taking the form of a demand, on
the part of the six seamen in the forecastle, that the division of the
treasure should be effected forthwith; and when I pointed out that,
owing to the impossibility of justly valuing such articles as gold and
silver candlesticks, salvers, bowls, cups, caskets, jewelled crosses,
articles of jewellery and gems, such a division as they desired was out
of the question, they insisted that the ship should forthwith be taken
to the nearest civilised port, in order that the treasure might be
turned into money, and the division effected. To this I replied that
only in London would it be possible to obtain anything approaching fair
value for so enormous a treasure as ours, therefore to London I intended
to take it; whereupon the Dagoes became so violently insubordinate that
forcible measures had to be resorted to, and a very pretty fight ensued
between them on the one hand, and the boatswain, carpenter, and myself
on the other before we succeeded in putting the quartette in irons and
dumping them down upon the ballast in the main hold, where, I informed
them, they would remain until they should show unmistakable signs of
having come to their senses. Such resolute action, coupled with the
fact that during their confinement their food consisted solely of coarse
ship biscuit and water, soon brought the insubordinate ones to their
bearings, a message of unconditional surrender being brought from them
to me within thirty-six hours of their confinement, promising good
behaviour in the future if I would release them and permit them to
return to duty.
Naturally I was more than willing to accept the olive branch thus held
out, for the absence from duty of four able seamen out of our little
company left the ship perilously undermanned, and would have involved us
in serious difficulties, might indeed have imperilled the safety of the
ship, had we fallen in with bad weather. Fortunately, however, the
weather, for the first week after our departure from the estuary, proved
to be almost too fine for our liking, consisting as it did of light,
baffling contrary airs, interspersed with spells of calm; thus the
temporary confinement below of the four foreigners proved of no
disadvantage to us, although I was heartily glad to have them back on
duty again. Nevertheless it soon became apparent that their reformation
was, like beauty, only skin-deep, and that at heart they were as ready
as ever to give trouble.
The exceptionally fine weather, to which I have just referred, continued
for nearly a month, during which, with much pulling and hauling at
tacks, sheets, and braces, we contrived to jockey the brigantine fairly
into the Pacific, where I intended to hunt up a cargo of copra,
sandalwood, and shell on the way home.
But such an extraordinarily long spell of fine weather as we had been
experiencing was bound to break, sooner or later, and the break came
during the afternoon of our twenty-seventh day out. The barometer,
which for nearly three weeks had been standing well above thirty inches,
gave us the first warning of the coming change by an ominously rapid
decline of the mercury, which was quickly succeeded by a subtle veiling
of the sky, the clear, rich blue of which gradually changed to a uniform
tint of dirty white, in the midst of which the sun hung a mere shapeless
blotch. The light breeze that during the earlier part of the day had
been fanning us along at a scant three knots, died away, leaving the
surface of the sea oil-smooth and colourless, while the stagnant air
grew so hot that we literally felt the heat of it in our nostrils with
every breath we drew. The _quality_ of the air seemed to change, too,
rendering it difficult to breathe, so that we found ourselves gasping
for breath at frequent intervals, while perspiration poured from us in
streams that we could distinctly feel trickling down our bodies and
limbs. So enervating were the conditions that none of us cared to make
the slightest unnecessary movement; yet the steady decline of the
mercury was a warning that I dared not ignore. Accordingly, at eight
bells in the afternoon watch, when Enderby took charge of the deck, I
showed him the barometer, expressed the conviction that we were in for a
typhoon, and instructed him to set all hands to the task of stripping
the ship to a close-reefed topsail, reefed fore topmast-staysail, and
close-reefed main trysail.
When the boatswain went for'ard and gave the necessary orders, the men
received them, as I had quite expected, with black looks, muttered
curses, and inarticulate growls; but the sight of Chips and me lowering
and stowing the big mainsail while they surlily slouched about the deck,
letting go halliards, clewing up and hauling down; and perhaps, more
than all, the aspect of the heavens, conveying a message that no man
could misinterpret, caused them somewhat to modify their attitude, and
by four bells the ship was as nearly ready for what might come as we
could make her.
But our preparations were completed not a moment too soon, for we were
in a latitude where twilight is unknown, and with the disappearance of
the sun below the horizon there closed down upon us a darkness that
might literally be felt, for any attempt to move about the decks, well
as we believed ourselves to be acquainted with them, resulted in
constant collisions with unexpected obstacles.
This bewildering state of affairs continued until shortly after five
bells in the first watch, when we became aware that the atmosphere was
being subtly and gradually suffused with ruddy light, coming from we
knew not where. The change was so gradual that it was impossible to say
just when it began, but within half an hour of our first perception of
it the light had grown so strong that not only were we able to move
about freely without running foul of things but, standing aft by the
useless wheel and looking forward, every detail of the ship's hull,
spars, sails, and rigging stood out clearly and sharply, like a
silhouette cut out of black paper, against a background of shining oil-
smooth water and dense masses of twisting and writhing cloud-shapes all
reflecting the weird, mysterious ruddy light. It was an awe-inspiring
phenomenon, strongly suggestive of the supernatural, and from the uneasy
glances that were directed aft from the forecastle it was not difficult
to surmise that none of the men had ever before beheld anything like it.
Neither had we of the afterguard, for that matter, and I have no doubt
that I should have been very much more seriously alarmed than I was at
the spectacle, had I not read somewhere the description of a hurricane
that had been similarly heralded. As it was, I was by no means happy at
the prospect of what was in store for us, asking myself uneasily whether
quite all had been done that it was possible to do to prepare the ship
for the impending ordeal. There was but one thing I could think of, and
that was to order all the scuttles to be securely closed, and this was
at once done, although it rendered the cabins insupportably hot and
close. Of course I should have liked to send down the royal and
topgallant yards, and to have housed the fore topgallant mast and main
topmast, and I would have attempted it had we had a decently willing
crew; but I doubted whether the Dagoes would have undertaken the job,
except under compulsion; and I was unwilling to engage in a tussle with
a crowd of insubordinates with a hurricane threatening to burst upon us
at any moment.
Naturally, under the circumstances I never dreamed of turning in; nor
did any of the others, for that matter, the boatswain and Chips keeping
me company aft, while a glance for'ard showed that even the forecastle
bunch, jealous as they were of their "rights", preferred for once in a
way to spend their watch below on deck. Shortly after midnight the
weird, ruddy light began to fade, indicating that the crisis was
approaching. I accordingly sent the boy Billy below, secured the
companion doors, and closed the slide, knowing this to be one of the
ship's most vulnerable points in a heavy sea, such as one might expect
when the gale should burst upon us, and thereafter there was nothing
more to be done but to abide events.
It was about half an hour later, and the light had almost entirely
faded, when we got our first distinct warning to "stand by". It came in
the form of a sudden scurry of wind, apparently from nowhere in
particular, that swept, whining and moaning, over the ship, causing the
canvas to flap violently--and then it was gone. This occurred perhaps
half a dozen times, each gust lasting a few seconds longer and being
perceptibly stronger than the one which preceded it, smiting the canvas
with such violence that I quite expected to see it fly out of the bolt-
ropes, while the brigantine, being only in ballast, rocked and staggered
like a drunken man. Fortunately, there remained just light enough to
enable us to trace the direction from which those tornadoes came. With
their help, therefore, Chips and I, who at once sprang to the wheel,
managed to get the ship's head round before the hurricane itself struck
us, Enderby going for'ard to stand by on the forecastle.
It announced its approach by a low, weird, unearthly moaning that with
terrifying rapidity swelled to a deafening compound of the shrieking
yell of the swooping wind and the hiss of the tempest-lashed sea as it
rushed, in the form of a wall of ghastly, heaped-up, phosphorescent foam
stretching from horizon to horizon, straight down upon the ship. The
spectacle of that unbridled outburst of elemental fury was awe-inspiring
beyond the power of words to describe, but it was terrifying too, as was
evidenced by Chips' remark, a moment before the gale struck us. Leaning
over toward me as we stood on opposite sides of the wheel, he yelled:
"Good-bye, sir! This is the finish. The ship ain't built that could
weather such an outfly as this!"
And I felt very much inclined to agree with him. To me it seemed
impossible that any combination of wood and metal, the work of men's
hands, however cunningly fashioned and deftly put together, could
withstand such a frenzied onslaught as that which was about to burst
upon us.
Another instant and we were within the hurricane's clutches. With a
yell of indescribable fury the blast struck us, and as the storm-wave
boiled in over our taffrail and swept along the deck, filling it to the
level of the rail and taking with it in its rush for'ard every movable
thing in its way, I saw the storm trysail fill, with a terrific jerk of
the doubled sheets, and then go flying away out of the bolt-ropes like a
sheet of tissue paper. Whether or not the remainder of our canvas had
withstood the strain I could not for the moment determine, for I was up
to the armpits in the surging water, pinned by it and the pressure of
the wind so hard up against the wheel that I momentarily expected to
feel my breast-bone collapse under the pressure. Luckily the gale came
up square astern, and hit us end-on; luckily, also, we were in ballast,
and the ship was therefore quite lively; nevertheless I felt the hull
under my feet tremble perceptibly under the tremendous strain to which
it was subjected as the wind and sea smote her, and for a few breathless
moments I believed she was foundering under us. Then, as she gradually
freed herself of the water that flooded her decks, she gathered way and
went foaming off before the gale like a mad thing.
The next occurrence of which I was clearly conscious was that Chips was
again leaning over toward me and shouting:
"My God! Mr Blackburn, that was a narrer squeak, if ever there was
one! If anybody had told me that the old hooker would have stood it, I
wouldn't ha' believed 'em. But I think we're all right now, so long as
we can keep her runnin' afore it, if only the spars and riggin' 'll
stand the strain. But what about what's ahead of us, sir? Is there
anything that we're likely to run foul of?"
"Nothing, so far as I know," answered I. "The chart shows a clear sea
for some hundreds of miles to the eastward; and before we have run that
distance the gale will have blown itself out. But there is Enderby
trying to claw his way aft. I wonder what news he has for us."
The unnatural, ruddy light in the sky had by this time quite died out,
but it was replaced by a faint, ghostly sheen emitted by the foaming
surface of the wind-scourged sea, and by this feeble radiance it was
just possible to discern the burly form of the boatswain laboriously
clawing aft along the port bulwarks against the tremendous pressure of
the wind. Presently he reached us and seated himself upon the wheel
grating at my feet, gasping and panting for breath.
"Well, Enderby," I shouted, "what's the news from the fore end of the
ship? Did the sea that pooped us do any damage?"
"Not so much as might ha' been expected," returned the boatswain. "The
jolly-boat's clean gone; the life-boat's a wreck; the to'gallant
bulwark, both sides, is gone, for'ard of the fore riggin'; the staysail
blowed out of the bolt-ropes directly the gale struck us; and--worst of
all--we've lost three of our little crowd."
"Lost!" I ejaculated. "What d'ye mean, man?"
"Just what I says, Mr Blackburn," answered the boatswain. "We've lost
three hands--Van Haalst, Mendal, and Manning. The sea that broke aboard
us must have took 'em unawares and swept 'em over the bows, for they was
on deck before we was swept, and when she cleared herself they was
gone!"
"Jove! that's bad news indeed," said I. "We were short-handed enough
before, but we shall be worse off than ever now. And they were all good
men, too; we can ill spare them."
"Ay," agreed Enderby; "there's others that we could better have spared,
if some of 'em had to go. But as to them bein' good men--well, they was
good enough sailor-men, I won't deny, but if we'd lost 'em any other way
than bein' drownded--if they'd cut and run, for instance--I wouldn't ha'
grieved overmuch at the loss of the two Dagoes."
Thereupon we fell silent, for to out-shout the yell of the wind and the
roar of the sea was no easy matter; moreover the loss of those three men
set me thinking, and on top of that the ship needed most careful
watching, for, in light trim as she was, there were moments when the
rudder seemed to lose control of her, and then it taxed our skill and
strength to the utmost to prevent her broaching to, which would have
meant the end of her and of all hands.
I shall never forget that night, so long as I live. Never before had I
known it blow anything like so hard; the wind smote one like something
solid and with such tremendous force that to have stood up, unsupported,
against the pressure of it, would have been impossible. If it had been
blowing, say, half as hard as it actually was, there would have been a
terrific sea running, but, far from this being the case, the surface of
the ocean was as flat as a billiard-table, the slightest roughness being
instantly seized by the wind and swept away to leeward in the form of
scud-water.
Then there was the appalling unnatural darkness, through which the ship
was rushing at a speed which I am certain she had never before attained.
The only mitigating circumstance was that the wind-lashed sea emitted a
certain ghostly radiance that, despite the deluge of spindrift and scud-
water with which the air was saturated, enabled one dimly to discern
objects as far forward as the foremast. But to rush, at the speed at
which we were travelling, into the heart of that pitchy blackness was
nerve-racking work, for although the chart assured us that we had a
clear sea for some hundreds of miles ahead, there were still such
possibilities as derelicts to be reckoned with, and under such
circumstances as I have been endeavouring to describe, if an obstacle of
any sort should happen to be in our way, to avoid it would be a sheer
impossibility, while to strike it would mean for us simply--destruction.
I was anxiously considering the chance of such an eventuality when
another terrific gust swooped down upon us; the ship trembled and
lurched forward as though she were about to plunge to the bottom and
have done with it; I heard a loud "crack" behind me, and simultaneously
received a terrible blow on the back of the head; then--oblivion.
A dull, aching, throbbing pain at the back of my head was the sensation
of which I was first conscious upon awaking from what seemed to have
been a sleep haunted by innumerable harrowing nightmares. Then, before
I had time to fully realise that I was once more awake and free from the
torment of those dreadful nightmares, I became aware of two things;
first, that a soft, warm, salt-laden breeze was gently fanning my face
and affording me much refreshment, and next, that the air was vibrant
with the deep, booming thunder of heavily breaking surf. I was aware
also that I was in bed, and that, apart from my throbbing headache, I
was quite comfortable; and for perhaps two or three minutes I remained
as I was, quiescent, enjoying the sensation of comfort, quite oblivious
of everything else. Then it suddenly occurred to me to wonder where I
was, what was the matter with my head--and back came the memory of that
awful night of hurricane--that terrible blow on the back of my head--
and, opening my eyes, I started up, with an inarticulate cry.
That is to say I _attempted_ to start up--but failed: my body felt like
lead; I had no strength to move it, and after a moment's ineffectual
struggle I abandoned the attempt and let my head sink back upon the
pillow. As I did so I became aware of a slight movement at my side and,
glancing in that direction, I saw the boy Billy bending over me with an
expression of deep anxiety in his eyes. As he continued to gaze, the
expression of anxiety gave place to one of satisfaction, and he said:
"Ah, that's better, Mr Blackburn! I believe you're not going to die
yet, after all."
"Going to die!" I reiterated. "Have I been ill, then?"
"You _have_, and no mistake!" emphatically asserted the boy. "For four
days and nights you have been just raving; and all the while you refused
to take anything but an occasional drink of water. No wonder you found
yourself too weak to rise just now."
"By Jove!" ejaculated I, "you amaze me, Billy. But--I am puzzled. I am
in my own bunk, in my own cabin; there is a nice breeze blowing, for I
can feel it coming through the open scuttle, and I hear the seething of
water along the ship's side, yet I'll swear she is not moving an inch.
What is the explanation?"
"I'll tell you in a minute or two," answered Billy. "But, first, let me
get you some broth, for I can see that you're about done up, and need
something to strengthen you. I thought, this morning, that you seemed a
bit different, and when you stopped raving and dropped off to sleep I
seized the chance to get something ready for you against the time when
you woke up. I'll fetch it in half a jiffy."
So saying, Billy disappeared into the main cabin, returning a minute or
two later with a bowl of steaming-hot, savoury-smelling soup, with
which, after propping me up with cushions, he cautiously fed me, a
little at a time, until he thought I had taken as much as was good for
me. Then, removing the cushions, he lowered me gently back into a
reclining position, made me comfortable and, seating himself by my
bedside, proceeded to make me acquainted with the happenings succeeding
my accident.
CHAPTER SEVEN.
Billy tells how we became wrecked.
"My word," began Billy, "I shan't forget in a hurry the awful look of
the sky, that night, when you ordered me to come below, and I heard you
slam the companion doors behind me, and draw over the slide. I felt
certain that, with a sky blazing like that, when it was gettin' on
toward the middle of the night, something dreadful was goin' to happen;
and--it did, didn't it? I was frightened enough, to start with, but
when you battened me down I tell you, Mr Blackburn, I was fairly
terrified, and two or three times I climbed half-way up the companion
stairs, intendin' to shout to you to let me out; then I thought again
that you wouldn't have sent me below if you hadn't known it was the best
place for me, so I crept back again and curled up on the locker
cushions. And then came the hurricane. I heard it, even before it
struck the ship; and when it hit her, and I felt her shiver, I made sure
that it was all up with us, and I knelt down on the cabin floor and kept
on sayin' my prayers, over and over again.
"I was still sayin' 'em when I suddenly heard the slide pushed back and
the companion doors flung open; there was a scuffling of feet on the
stairs, and I heard Enderby and Chips warnin' one another to be careful.
Then they came into the cabin, carryin' you between 'em; and they laid
you on the cabin table, and said you'd met with an accident; and I saw
that your head was bleedin'. They undressed you, all in a hurry, put
you in your bunk, told me to look after you, and then rushed up on deck
again, shuttin' me in, just as you did.
"You were insensible then, so I got to work and hunted up some stuff to
make bandages with. Then I opened the medicine-chest and got out the
book of instructions; and while I was trying to find out what was the
proper thing to do I heard the bosun and Chips shoutin' something. I
listened, tryin' to hear what they were shoutin' about; and then, above
the noise of the wind, I heard another sound, like--well, I can hardly
describe it, but you can hear it now, the roar of the surf on the reef.
It grew louder, and louder still, until it was--well, just deafenin';
then I felt the ship hove, first up and then down; then she touched
something, but didn't seem to hit it very hard; I felt a blow, like a
heavy sea hittin' her; I heard the fall and rush of water on her deck,
and a crash that sounded as if the mainmast had gone over the side, then
she struck again--harder--three or four times, heeling over until she
seemed to be on her beam-ends, and flinging me right across the cabin
floor; and all the time I could hear that she was bein' swept by awfully
heavy seas. But after a bit things got rather more quiet. I felt that
we were aground, but still rolling heavily, and I could hear at every
roll a sort of crunching sound, as though the planking of the ship's
bottom was grinding upon something; but the seas weren't coming aboard
now nearly so heavy nor so often as they were, and after a time they
didn't come aboard at all; the rocking motion eased up, and I thought,
from the sound, that it didn't seem to be blowin' quite so hard.
"All this time you were in your bunk, insensible; but as soon as I was
able to stand without bein' flung down again I got some water from the
pantry filter, and bathed your head. There was a nasty cut in it, and
it was still bleedin', but I washed it as well as I could, and made a
pad that I bound tightly over it, accordin' to the directions I found in
the book. And then I think I must have fallen asleep, for I don't
remember anything more happenin' until I awoke and saw the sun shinin'
through your scuttle and the cabin skylight.
"You were still insensible, so I bathed your head afresh, put a new
dressing on it, and then went on deck to have a look round. My word!
Mr Blackburn, I _was_ astonished when I pushed open the companion slide
and looked out. The ship is ashore on a reef; a total wreck; both masts
gone by the board; bulwarks carried away; decks swept, and everything
but the galley gone--and you and I are all that are left of the crew."
"Good Heavens, Billy, you surely don't mean to say that all hands except
ourselves are lost!" I exclaimed, in horrified tones.
"Yes, I do, Mr Blackburn," protested the boy; "and you wouldn't be
surprised if you had heard--as I did--the tremendous seas that swept the
ship when she first hit the reef. I shouldn't have been a bit surprised
if she had gone to pieces right then. It's no wonder that the decks
were clean swept."
"No wonder, indeed," I agreed. "You say that we are ashore on a reef,
Billy. What sort of a reef is it; just ordinary rocks, or--?"
"No," answered Billy; "it's not just jagged, seaweed-covered rocks, but
all white, almost like marble, a little bit rough and uneven, but not
like the rocks we get at home. This reef seems to be all in a piece,
like a great, tremendously thick wall--"
"Yes," I interrupted; "I think I understand. It is probably a coral
reef. How far does it extend?"
"How far?" reiterated Billy. "Why,"--pointing--"it comes from away over
there, as far as you can see, and stretches right across to as far as
you can see on the other side."
"Ay," I agreed; "a coral reef, without a doubt. And how much water is
there alongside?"
"Not more than two or three feet, at most," answered Billy. "We're
standin' a lot higher out of the water than we were when afloat. When I
first noticed it I thought it was because it happened to be low water
when I looked; but it isn't that, because it's always pretty nearly the
same. I don't think there's a difference of more than just a few inches
between high and low water."
"In that case," I commented, as much to myself as to my companion, "the
explanation probably is that when we hit the reef the sea was heaped up
by the gale considerably above its usual level, and that it has now
subsided again, leaving us nearly high and dry. Now, Billy, is there
any land in sight? If so, what does it look like?"
Billy considered for a moment or two, evidently conjuring up a mental
picture. Then he answered:
"First, about two miles off, there's a beach of very white sand. Then
there's a lot of trees--palm trees, I think they must be--growing all
along the inner edge of the beach, and, behind them, bushes and more
trees--thousands--millions of 'em, of all sorts of colours--white,
yellow, green, red, purple--but I don't remember seein' any that were
really black."
"Is there a mountain on the island?" I asked.
"Well--no; not exactly what you'd call a mountain, I think; but there
are plenty of fairly high hills," answered Billy.
"And how big do you suppose the island to be?" I asked.
"How big?" repeated Billy. "Oh, really I don't know; quite a big place,
I'd say. It stretches athwart our bows as far as you can see, both
ways."
"The dickens it does!" I exclaimed. "That is very extraordinary. I
cannot understand it. At that rate the island must be at least thirty
miles long! Yet there is no such island shown on the chart; no island
of any sort, indeed, large or small, just where we are. Yet I have been
under the impression that these seas have been thoroughly surveyed. The
main fact, however, and the one most important to us is that _we are
here_, with very little prospect, I fear, of getting away again for some
time. I must turn out and begin to get busy; there is evidently no time
to waste. Billy, please find me my clothes."
Billy regarded me gravely; then shook his head.
"That's all very well, Mr Blackburn," he said, "but what's the good of
talkin' about turnin' out, when you haven't even got strength enough to
lift yourself up in bed? No, sir, please don't attempt to do anything
so foolish; you'd only fall, and hurt yourself worse. What you've got
to do is to get well as quick as ever you can; and the best way to do
that is to stay where you are until you've got your strength again. And
I'll help you all I can; I'll feed you up, and look after you, and tell
you everything that happens; but please--_please_ don't be in too great
a hurry; this is a case of `the more hurry, the less speed'; I'm sure of
it. Only trust yourself to me, Mr Blackburn, and I'll get you well as
quick as ever I can."
"By Jove, Billy," said I, "I believe you will. You have done
marvellously well, thus far. Why, boy, you must have been born to
become a great physician; and you talk more wisely than many lads of
twice your age. Yes; I will trust myself absolutely to you. But, now
that I come to look at you, your eyes are so heavy with sleeplessness
that you seem scarcely able to keep them open. How have you managed for
sleep while I have been ill?"
"Oh," answered Billy, "I've done pretty well. When you've been quiet
for a bit I've stretched myself out on the sofa and slept until you woke
me with your ravin'; but now that you've come to your senses I expect I
shall be able to get a really _good_ rest."
"I hope you will," said I. "And there's no time like the present; so,
as I am feeling very comfortable just now, and much inclined to sleep,
go and turn in, and get that really _good_ rest that you spoke of.
Leave open the door of my state-room, and that of your own, and if I
need anything I'll call out for you."
Thanks to the tireless attention with which Billy tended me, and the
meticulous care with which he followed the instructions set forth in the
book of directions attached to the ship's medicine-chest, for such a
case as mine, I was not again troubled with delirium, nor did I
experience any other set-back of any kind; on the contrary, I made such
excellent progress that within the fortnight I was able to be up and
about again, although it was something of a task to climb the companion
stairway to the deck, even with the help of Billy. But, that task once
achieved, I made rapid headway, and was soon my old self again. Upon my
first visit to the deck after my illness I sustained something of a
shock. My last view of the brigantine had shown her all ataunto, and
although what Billy had told me ought to have prepared me for the change
that met my gaze, I must confess that I was distinctly taken aback when
upon my first emergence from the companion I beheld both masts gone by
the board, all the bulwarks swept away, and the deck hampered by a
confused mass of raffle consisting of the mainmast with all attached
stretched fore and aft, while the foremast had gone over the bows, its
head resting upon the coral while its splintered lower extremity
projected some ten feet above the knightheads. The fore topmast had
carried away close to the cap and, with the yards, was afloat under the
bows, fast to the wreck by the standing and running rigging. The life-
boat that had served me so well had practically disappeared, only the
keel and a fragment of the sternpost remaining; but, by a miracle, the
galley remained intact, and was in regular use by Billy for the
preparation of our meals. Almost my first care was to sound the well,
in the hope that by some stroke of marvellous good fortune the hull
might have, so far, escaped serious damage and be capable of being
floated again; but, of course, that was too much to expect. I found
nearly two and a half feet of water in the well, which was about the
depth alongside; the inference therefore was that, upon striking the
reef, the ship had been bilged, or some of her planks had been started,
and that therefore, if it depended upon my efforts alone, she would
never float again.
I next turned my attention to externals. Helped by Billy, I tottered to
the skylight and seated myself upon the cover, from which I obtained a
clear view of the whole reef, from horizon to horizon. It appeared to
be a typical example of a coral barrier reef, running roughly parallel
to the shore of the island, from north to south; but it seemed to vary
greatly in width, for while in some places I judged it to be not more
than five or six yards wide, it was nearly or quite three hundred yards
wide where the brigantine lay. And most fortunate was it for us that it
was so; for if, after striking, the ship had been driven over the inner
edge of the reef to the comparatively deep water of the lagoon, she
would assuredly have gone down, taking us with her. As it was, there
was a space of only about a fathom between our forefoot and the inner
edge of the reef, as I ascertained later. The great wall of surf, fifty
feet high, breaking perpetually upon the outer face of the reef, and
stretching mile after mile to north and south of us, was a wonderful
sight, especially in the early morning, when the sun's rays struck the
great cloud of spray, creating a most beautiful and perfect rainbow.
That same wall of spray, by the way, effectually excluded all view of
the ocean outside, so that even if a whole navy happened to be passing,
we should never catch the smallest glimpse of it, so long as we remained
aboard the wreck. It was evident, therefore, that the first step toward
an escape from our present predicament must be the transfer of ourselves
and everything of value to the island.
By a natural transition of thought I next turned my attention to the
land which stretched north and south athwart the bows of the wreck. A
great belt of smooth water, averaging some two miles in width, lay
between the reef and the beach of dazzling white sand, both extending to
right and left as far as the eye could see. To the south the land
seemed to dip out of sight below the horizon, but northward it appeared
to terminate in a high headland which I estimated to be about eighteen
miles distant; I considered, therefore, that the island must measure,
from north to south, at least forty miles. What it might measure from
east to west was not to be easily determined, but the summits of the
most distant range of hills appeared to be nearly or quite twenty miles
distant; and how much land lay beyond them it was of course impossible
to guess. The description of the island which Billy had given me,
several days earlier, was quite a good one. There was the far-
stretching ribbon of white beach, bordered on its inshore margin by
innumerable cocoa-nut palms, beyond which the land rose gently, in
irregular folds, to the hills in the rear, every inch of soil,
apparently, being clothed with vegetation of some sort, chiefly trees,
many of which seemed--as seen through the ship's telescope--to be
smothered in blossoms of varied and most beautiful hues. I subjected
every foot of the land in sight to a most rigorous scrutiny through the
lenses of the telescope, in search of some indication of inhabitants,
but could find nothing; no cleared and cultivated land, no smoke,
suggestive of dwellings, no canoes on the beach, no moving figures; to
all appearances, indeed, the gulls, pelicans, and other aquatic birds
that wheeled and screamed over the lagoon and dived into its waters
might be the only life on the island.
"Well, Mr Blackburn, what do you think of it?" demanded Billy, when at
length I lowered the telescope from my eye.
"It is wonderful," I declared. "I am amazed. I simply cannot
understand it. That island is quite a big place. There is nothing in
the least like it shown on the chart anywhere near the spot which it
actually occupies, yet how it has so far escaped the notice of the
hydrographers is a puzzle to me. The matter, however, which most
concerns us is that, viewed from here at least, it appears to be a
sufficiently desirable place, on which we ought, without difficulty, to
find ample means of subsistence. How does the idea of living ashore
there for a time appeal to you?"
"Oh, I say!" exclaimed Billy, "that will be splendid! Just think of the
jolly times we shall be able to have, huntin' wild beasts, fightin' the
savages, and havin' all sorts of splendid adventures."
"Well," I said, "some of those things may possibly come our way, but we
really want no excitements of that sort, Billy boy. Of course, we are
all right where we are, so long as the wreck holds together and remains
habitable; but the trouble is that we don't know how long that may be.
Another such gale as placed us here might send such a tremendous sea
pouring in over the reef as to wash the old hooker off the reef into the
lagoon, where she would quickly founder--which is the reason why I
consider that we must establish ourselves ashore as soon as possible."
"Oh!" exclaimed Billy, "I never thought of that. Do you really think,
Mr Blackburn, that there's a chance of the wreck sinking?"
"It is quite possible," I replied, "although I have known cases where
stranded wrecks have remained for years undisturbed. Still the
possibility must be recognised and provided against, wherefore it is of
the utmost importance that we lose no time in getting ourselves safely
settled ashore."
"Then, what do you propose to do, sir?" demanded Billy.
"The moment that I am strong enough to do any work," said I, "I shall
start to build some sort of a craft in which we can ferry ourselves
across the lagoon and explore the island in search of a suitable spot
upon which to pitch our camp. After that, everything will depend upon
the conditions on which we find it possible to live. But one condition
is of paramount importance; we must establish ourselves where a clear
view of the open sea can be obtained, and from which it will be possible
to signal to any ship that may heave in sight. And now, Billy, do you
happen to know whether there is any timber aboard, out of which it would
be possible for me to build a boat without the preliminary necessity to
start breaking up the _Yorkshire Lass_?"
"Why--yes--I--I believe--there is," answered Billy hesitatingly. "I
can't say for certain, but I seem to remember hearin' Dad say something
about buyin' some planks as a stand-by in case of repairs of any sort
bein' needed; and I believe I saw some planks and scantlin' down in the
fore hold a bit later, while the ship was still in dock. If the
timber's aboard anywhere, that's where you'll find it, Mr Blackburn."
"Thanks, Billy," said I. "As soon as I am strong enough to lift a hatch
we will explore the fore hold, and see what is to be found there."
Nearly a fortnight elapsed before I was strong enough to open the fore
hatchway, even with Billy's help; but when at length we managed it we
were amply rewarded for our labour, an abundant supply of planks and
scantling for our utmost need being found. I took careful stock of it
all, recording the nature and dimensions of each piece of scantling and
plank, and then, providing myself with paper, pencil, and scale, I set
to work to scheme out a craft that should be easy to build, fast, stiff
and weatherly under canvas, a fairly good sea-boat, and of light
draught. It was a decidedly ambitious scheme for an individual who, up
to then, had attempted nothing bigger than a three-foot model; but even
that experience was, I soon found, of great value to me; and ultimately
I evolved a design that I believed would approach within a reasonable
distance of my requirements. This done, I routed out the carpenter's
chest of tools from the forecastle, cleaned and sharpened them, got up
on deck such timber as I immediately required, and started work, with
Billy as an enthusiastic helpmate.
CHAPTER EIGHT.
WE GO EXPLORING, AND MEET WITH AN ADVENTURE.
It cost Billy and me nearly three months of strenuous labour to build
our boat, rig her, and get her afloat; then, upon a certain day, the boy
and I, provided with a rifle apiece, a brace of revolvers, and an
abundant supply of cartridges for each kind of weapon, climbed down the
side of the wreck into our completed craft, set her sails, and pushed
off upon our first voyage of exploration.
The wind was, as usual, blowing a moderate breeze from the eastward when
we started, consequently the island lay dead to windward, a "beat" of
two miles to the nearest point of the beach, thus affording an excellent
opportunity to test the weatherly qualities of the boat; and I was
agreeably surprised not only at the style in which she turned to
windward, but also at the speed with which she slipped through the
water, and the certainty and celerity with which she "stayed". She made
the distance in a few minutes over the half-hour, which, considering
that as we drew in under the land the wind grew ever more scanty, I
regarded as a very creditable performance.
As we shortened the distance between ourselves and the land the prospect
grew ever more attractive, eliciting frequent exclamations of delight
from Billy. The ground now revealed itself as finely broken into a
range of lofty hills of gracefully flowing outline, with suggestions of
picturesque valleys winding between them, affording an infinite variety
of glowing light and soft shadow, while the variegated and brilliant
hues of the foliage completed a picture of indescribable beauty.
But all this beauty by no means exhausted the charm of the place, for as
we drew still closer to the beach we were able to distinguish that the
woods were the habitat of countless thousands of birds of strange and
most gorgeous plumage, among which I identified what I believed to be
three or four species of birds of paradise, as well as a great variety
of sun birds flitting from flower to flower like living gems. It is to
be admitted that the cries of those birds were not always in accord with
the splendour of their plumage, being for the most part distinctly harsh
and unmusical; but there was one exception that startled us not a little
when we first heard it. Its cry was an exact reproduction of the sound
of a sweet-toned bell, so exact, indeed, that for the moment I felt
fully persuaded that, hidden somewhere in the heart of that vast ocean
of greenery, there must be a monastery, or some such institution; and it
was not until we marked the irregular, intermittent character of the
sounds, and the fact that they emanated from frequently changing
localities, that we at length arrived at an explanation of the apparent
mystery.
While we were still discussing the matter the boat gently grounded upon
the dazzlingly white beach of coral sand, and we stepped out, securing
the boat by means of a grapnel attached to the end of a long painter,
digging the flukes of the former deeply into the sand. Then Billy and
I, each carrying the weapons with which we had provided ourselves, set
out to explore the new territory.
The beach was of varying width, ranging from two or three yards to, in
places, nothing at all; indeed many of the cocoa-nut trees were actually
rooted in soil that was, at the moment, being laved by the salt water,
due to the fact that we happened to land about the time of full tide.
It happened also that the fruit was at that season just ripening, so
many of the nuts falling to the ground with a thud, even as we stood
staring about us, that we were able without difficulty to collect and
place in the boat as many as we pleased. This done, we attempted to
make our way inland, but so dense was the undergrowth at that point that
we were soon compelled to abandon our efforts, it being clearly evident
that the only way in which we could penetrate would be by hewing a path
for ourselves.
But it did not follow that because we failed here we must necessarily
fail everywhere. We therefore re-embarked and, again getting under way,
headed northward, keeping close to the beach and maintaining a good
look-out for a spot affording a reasonable prospect of successful
penetration. Several times we believed we had found what we were
seeking, but on each occasion our hopes were speedily dashed, our most
successful effort resulting merely in penetration for a distance of less
than half a mile. But, even so, our attempts were not unmitigated
failures, for while our clothing suffered somewhat in our encounters
with the thorns that persistently barred our passage, we were fortunate
enough to secure a few bunches of delicious wild grapes, a large bunch
of very delicately flavoured bananas, and six splendid pineapples. Upon
our return to the beach I took the precaution to mark the spot by
cutting a good big branch and inserting it upright in the sand, so that
it could easily be seen at some distance; and then we resumed our voyage
of exploration, lunching luxuriously upon bananas, meanwhile.
At length, after working northward for a distance of some fourteen miles
along the western shore, we quite suddenly opened out the mouth of what
I at first supposed to be an important river running in a south-easterly
direction toward the interior of the island, but which subsequently
proved to be one of several channels dividing what I originally imagined
to be only one island into a group of no less than seven. Naturally, I
at once decided to abandon for the moment the further exploration of the
lagoon, in favour of a survey of this waterway, and the boat was
accordingly put about and headed into it. At its entrance it measured
about half a mile wide, but as we proceeded it gradually widened out
until, at a point about eight miles inward from the lagoon, it was quite
two and a half miles wide. Here the channel trended a point or two
farther to the eastward; and some four miles farther on it forked, one
branch continuing to the south-eastward while the other trended away
toward the north-east. I decided to follow the latter.
The land on both sides was still distinctly hilly, and densely covered
with forest, but on our left the hills sloped rapidly downward until
they died away in a plateau, the level of which was only two or three
feet above the surface of the water. As the boat glided slowly onward
under the influence of a breeze that had steadily grown more languid and
fitful as we progressed, we subjected this plateau to a rigorous
scrutiny through the ship's telescope, which we carried with us, but the
place looked so uninviting that we decided against landing there. Nor
did the land to the southward look any more inviting, for it consisted
of cliffs ranging from two hundred to five or six hundred feet high,
rising almost vertically from the water. We therefore pushed on, all
the more impelled thereto because the channel now ran almost directly to
windward and we were therefore obliged to beat up through it; moreover,
the afternoon was progressing, and I wanted, if possible, to find some
spot where we could pass the night in comfort.
At a point some eight miles farther on the channel again forked, one
branch heading away to the north-east while the other trended off in a
south-easterly direction. As we reached this point the wind suddenly
freshened, and there was a salt tang in it quite distinctive from the
odour of earth and vegetation that we had now been breathing for several
hours; also there came to our ears, subdued by distance, the low,
continuous booming thunder of surf, from which I surmised--correctly as
it subsequently proved--that we were nearing the eastern extremity of
the group.
Heading the boat into the south-eastern channel, with the long range of
vertical rocky cliffs still stretching away on our starboard bow, we
presently came abreast of an island measuring some six miles from east
to west, by about seven miles from north to south, roughly triangular in
plan, the surface sloping upward on all sides from the water's edge to a
peak which I estimated to be about two thousand feet high. Standing
close inshore, to get as near a view as possible of this island, we
found its appearance most delectable. Like much of what we had already
seen, the entire island was forest-clad, but the country was much more
park-like in character; the trees grew less thickly together; they were
not matted together by an impenetrable jungle of undergrowth, although
many of them were almost smothered in what appeared to be innumerable
varieties of orchids, and the soil was clothed with what looked like
short, grey-green grass down to the inner edge of the narrow beach,
which was lined with cocoa-nut palms. Taken altogether, the place wore
so exceedingly attractive an appearance that, finding ourselves rather
unexpectedly standing into a nice, snug little bay, I headed straightway
for the beach, determined to push our explorations no farther for that
day.
Securely mooring the boat as before, we landed and, fully armed, made
our way inland over the southern shoulder of the hill, observing, as we
went, that among the forest giants that towered about us on every hand
there were fruit-trees in abundance, among which I identified the bread-
fruit, the mango, the custard-apple, the shaddock or grape-fruit, grape-
vines twining about many of the bigger trees and yielding large clusters
of richly flavoured fruit, while bananas and plantains were to be seen
wherever one turned one's eyes. Birds also seemed to regard this island
as a desirable dwelling-place, for they were everywhere, their beautiful
plumage adding a further charm to the little island paradise.
From the beach to the ridge of the hill, for which we were making, the
distance was about a mile, the ground rising gently all the way; but the
going was comparatively easy, for by making slight detours here and
there we were able to progress without the need to force our way through
dense undergrowth; a gentle saunter of about half an hour's duration
therefore took us to the point for which I was aiming. Arrived there,
we were afforded a clear view eastward, when we discovered, as I had
suspected, that we had practically reached the eastern extremity of the
group. Immediately before us the ground sloped down to the eastern
shore, its distance being about a mile. That shore was washed by the
waters of the lagoon, which was at this point some six or seven miles
wide, its outer margin being marked by a continuous wall of spray thrown
up by the long lines of Pacific swell that eternally hurled themselves
upon the barrier reef. And midway between that reef and the island on
which we stood there was a smaller island which, in all essentials,
appeared to be a replica of the one we were on, for it, too, was park-
like in the arrangement of the trees that grew upon it, while it also
boasted a central peak, rising to a height of some six or seven hundred
feet. This small island, it was evident, was the easternmost of the
whole group, and I at once determined to pay it a visit early on the
morrow; for if it should prove, upon inspection, to be as desirable as
it looked, it would certainly be the place on which we ought to take up
our abode, since from it we should best be able to signal any ship that
might heave in sight, and from which also--if an opening in the reef
happened to be anywhere handy--we could slip out to sea in our boat and,
if need be, intercept that ship. South of us, and on the opposite side
of a channel about three-quarters of a mile wide, lay the curious island
of the vertical cliffs, already referred to. From the view-point which
we occupied we could see the entire length of this island, which I
estimated at about sixteen miles, its eastern extremity being a low
cliff some eight miles south-east of us. I resolved that on the morrow,
after visiting the small island to the eastward of us, which I already
began to speak of as "ours", I would pay a visit to this other island,
which somehow seemed to have invested itself in my eyes with an air of
mystery. We spent that night encamped on the grass close to the beach,
occupying a tent formed of an old sail and three oars which I had
brought along for the purpose. And we slept soundly, the night air on
the eastern side of the group being, as we discovered, very much fresher
and cooler than on the western side, where the wreck lay.
We were astir by sunrise next morning, treating ourselves to a swim in
the bay, after which we proceeded to prepare breakfast. When we had
finished the meal we struck the tent, packed it away in the boat, and
started upon another day's exploration.
Our first call was at the small island forming the easternmost extremity
of the group, which I had practically determined upon as our place of
abode during such time as fate might keep us prisoners on the group; and
we found it almost ideal for our purpose. In the first place there was,
on its south-western side, a snug little cove, just large enough to
accommodate our boat, and wherein she might ride safely in all weathers.
Next, discharging into this cove there was a brook of deliciously cool,
sweet water, springing from the side of the cove, affording us an ample
supply for every purpose. The island was rich in fruit-trees of great
variety; and, finally, a rigorous examination of it failed to disclose
the existence upon it of anything noxious or inimical to human life,
although, like the other islands visited, the place swarmed with birds.
To crown all, and complete my satisfaction, we found that there was a
passage through the reef immediately to the eastward of the island,
through which, in our boat, we might reach the open sea.
We spent the entire morning on "our" island, and partook of our mid-day
meal there, leaving it, rather reluctantly, to continue our survey of
the group. The island which I next intended to visit was the one with
the vertical cliffs, along which we had coasted on the previous day.
Those rugged precipitous cliffs formed the northern coast-line of the
island, but from certain observations which I had made from "our own"
island I came to the conclusion that the southern side of the island
would reveal very dissimilar characteristics. And so it proved, for
when, after a sail of some six miles in a southerly direction, we
rounded its south-eastern extremity, we discovered that its southern
shore rose only a few feet above the level of the water, being bounded,
as seemed usual in the group, by a narrow beach of coral sand, liberally
fringed with cocoa-nut trees, the ground sloping gently up from the
beach for a distance ranging from two to four miles, when it abruptly
ended against the southern face of the cliffs to which I have so
frequently referred. But this was by no means its most surprising
characteristic to us explorers. For, having thus far failed to discover
any sign of inhabitants, I had, perhaps rather hastily, jumped to the
conclusion that the group was uninhabited, whereas we now saw that the
whole surface of this particular island, from its southern shore right
up to the base of its range of northern cliffs, was under cultivation.
Wide areas of Indian corn were interspersed with spacious fields of
sugar-cane, varied here and there by great orchards of what I assumed to
be fruit-trees of various kinds, and what appeared to be garden plots
devoted to the cultivation of vegetables. Occasionally we caught
glimpses of the natives working, either singly or in small groups, in
the fields, orchards, and gardens, and from their gestures of amazement,
and from the manner in which they stood transfixed and staring when our
boat swept within their range of vision, I conjectured that it was the
first time in their lives that they had ever beheld such a sight. They
were almost coal-black in colour, and inspection of them through the
telescope showed them to be absolutely naked, wherefore I decided not to
pay them a visit until some future occasion when Billy should not be
with me, although, apart from their state of nudity, they impressed me
as being perfectly harmless.
My resolve to abstain from landing there on that occasion was, however,
broken down within the next half-hour, and that, too, in a sufficiently
remarkable and tragic manner. We were skimming briskly along before the
pleasant easterly breeze, Billy being at the helm, while I sat in the
bottom of the boat, taking peeps through the telescope at interesting
objects in the landscape that seemed to be gliding past us, when
suddenly we heard, from some distance ahead of us, a sound as of a horn
being blown, the sound being taken up and repeated at various points
both ahead and astern of us.
"What do you think is the meaning of that rumpus, Mr Blackburn?" asked
Billy. "Do you think they're scared at the sight of us? It looks a bit
like it, doesn't it; for, see, sir, they've all started to run."
I directed the telescope toward the shore. It was as Billy had said;
everybody within sight was running, and at remarkable speed too; but
whether or not it was the apparition of the boat that had startled them
I could not tell, for about half of them seemed to be hastening at
breakneck speed toward a part of the beach about half a mile ahead,
where a group of some forty or fifty blacks had already gathered, close
to the water's edge, and seemed to be engaged, in feverish haste, in
collecting stones, or lumps of coral. Other groups, which I believed to
be composed of women, were running with equal speed toward the cliffs at
the back of the island.
Turning my telescope again upon the rapidly gathering natives on the
beach, I saw that it could not be the boat that was causing their
excitement, for a number of them, having collected as many stones as
could be conveniently held in the hollow of the left arm, were now
excitedly pointing and directing their companions' attention to some
object in the channel immediately before them. Turning the telescope in
the direction toward which they were pointing, I presently sighted three
objects, that I believed to be the heads of animals, making rapid
progress through the water toward that point on the beach where the
still rapidly swelling crowd had collected, and, as I watched, little
jets of water began to spout up round the foremost of those heads. The
blacks were stoning it, with the evident object of driving it off, or at
least of preventing its approach; and remarkably good marksmen they
appeared to be, too, for as I continued to watch I observed four or five
direct hits, evoking from the target a most appalling shrieking roar,
while its progress through the water perceptibly speeded up. That the
three swimming creatures had been recognised by the blacks as enemies--
possibly of long standing--was clear enough; and here, it appeared to
me, was an excellent opportunity for me to establish good relations
between ourselves and the savages by taking a hand in the game that was
evidently toward. I accordingly laid down the telescope and, as I
reached for the rifles, directed Billy to luff and head the boat
straight for the spot where the blacks were gathered. As I rapidly
threw open the breeches of the rifles, to assure myself that the weapons
were loaded, the leading swimmer reached shallow water and, rising to
its feet, revealed itself as a gigantic anthropoid ape, probably a
species of gorilla. The creature towered a clear head and shoulders in
stature above the natives; it had a comparatively small head with a flat
receding forehead, very wide nostrils, a long, enormously muscular body,
immensely wide across its massive shoulders, disproportionately short
legs, and huge arms so long that even when the brute stood upright its
clenched fists reached to within a foot of the ground. As it started to
wade ashore its advance was momentarily checked by a terrific volley of
stones, hurled with amazing force and precision; then, emitting a series
of those dreadful, shrieking roars, it dashed forward with outstretched
arms, seized the nearest native and, without apparent effort, literally
tore the unfortunate man's head from his body.
It was evident that if I meant to intervene to any good purpose there
was not a moment to lose. The boat was now within a hundred yards of
the spot where the battle between the ape and the natives was raging,
but I dared not risk a shot in that quarter, for the great brute, still
roaring horribly, was completely hemmed in by a crowd of natives, all
battering the huge, hairy body with big lumps of coral, and the
movements of the combatants were so quick that I was more likely to hit
a black than the beast; but the second ape was now in shallow water and
on the point of rising to its feet. I therefore levelled the rifle I
held, and pressed the trigger as the two sights of the weapon came into
line with the centre of the head, just above the ear; a harrowing shriek
pealed out on the hot air and, as the little puff of smoke from the
rifle blew away, I had the satisfaction of seeing the creature throw up
its great hands and sink back into the water, dead.
Dropping the empty weapon, I snatched up the loaded one, and threw a
quick glance around to decide which should be my next mark. The third
ape was now less than twenty yards distant, and as my gaze fell upon him
I saw him change his course and head for the boat. This afforded me the
opportunity I wanted, and levelling my weapon I aimed for the centre of
the forehead, and fired. I distinctly heard the thud of the bullet as
it crashed into the massive skull; but there was no shriek this time;
the beast simply collapsed and sank.
Meanwhile, the aspect of affairs ashore had undergone a remarkable
change. Whether it was the sharp crack of the rifles and the coincident
deaths of the two apes, or the fact that the brute which had effected a
landing had already put some seven or eight of the natives _hors de
combat_, I could not guess, but the natives had, apparently with one
accord, and as though at a preconcerted signal, suddenly abandoned the
fight, and were now fleeing in all directions, while the ape, perhaps
taken by surprise at the quick-change tactics, or possibly dazed by the
severe blows that he had received, stood staring about him, as though
undecided what to do next. But only for a moment, for just then the
boat, with good way on, grounded and slid well up on the beach, while I
rose to my feet and, leaping lightly over the bows, advanced toward the
brute. Glancing quickly about him, the enormous beast instantly noted
my movement and, with a deep, savage roar, turned to meet me. His
little eyes blazing with fury, his lips drawn back in a snarl that
exposed his formidable teeth and a pair of great tusks protruding from
his lower jaw, with blood-stained foam dripping from his champing jaws,
and blood from numerous wounds streaking his great hairy hide, he
presented a most formidable spectacle as he approached me with his body
bent and crouching ready to spring, and his long, sinewy arms
outstretched, the great hands opening and closing, as though eager to
clutch my throat. We were now within half a dozen yards of each other,
and as though by mutual consent we each halted at the same instant,
glaring into each other's eyes. I saw the beast crouch still lower and
noted the ripple of the muscles of the great loins as he gathered
himself together for the spring that was to settle the dispute off-hand,
and quickly levelling the revolver which I had drawn from my belt as I
sprang ashore, I pointed the weapon straight for his head and pulled the
trigger. There was a sharp click as the hammer fell, but no explosion--
the cartridge had missed fire--and at that precise moment the brute made
his leap. As he came hurtling at me through the air I--by instinct, I
suppose, for there was no time for reasoning--again pointed the
revolver, this time straight at his wide-open mouth, and again pressed
the trigger. On this occasion the explosion came off all right; then,
while the report still rang in my ears the huge body of the ape, with a
curious writhing motion, crashed down upon me and dashed me violently to
the ground. We fell side by side, I upon my back, and the ape face
downward. A convulsive shudder shook the body for a moment, and then it
lay still. As for me, I remained where I had fallen, breathless, dazed,
and half stunned, until I was aroused by Billy, who, springing ashore,
rushed up to ask anxiously whether I was very much hurt. Fortunately, I
was not; I was scarcely even bruised by my fall, and I scrambled to my
feet not a penny the worse for my rather grim encounter.
I lingered on the beach for nearly half an hour, in the expectation that
some of the natives might possibly return and thus afford me an
opportunity to establish something in the nature of amicable relations
with them; but none of them did; eventually, therefore, I got the boat
afloat again and made sail on our way back to the wreck, abandoning for
the moment all idea of further exploration.
CHAPTER NINE.
WE SETTLE DOWN ON EDEN.
We found the wreck, as of course we had quite expected, in precisely the
same condition as we had left her. As I stowed the boat's sails and
made her securely fast to the wreck it was my fixed intention to
continue our exploration on the following day, but as I sat on deck that
night, smoking a final pipe before turning in, my plans underwent a
certain amount of modification. I had quite come to the conclusion that
the tiny islet that formed the easternmost extremity of the group was
the spot on which we ought to take up our abode in view of our hope of
eventual rescue; and while considering the matter it also occurred to me
that since it was impossible to forecast the duration of our detention
upon the group--it might run to months, for aught that I could tell--a
reasonably comfortable dwelling of some sort--something less susceptible
to the vicissitudes of weather than a mere tent, for instance--was an
absolute necessity. I therefore spent the ensuing four days in planning
such a house as Billy and I might, between us, be able to construct; and
by the end of that time I had got it satisfactorily planned out on
paper. I determined to build it entirely of wood, first, because the
wreck afforded us abundance of material, and next, because I could do
all the cutting-out, the sawing, planing, mortising, and fitting aboard
the ship, where such tools and conveniences as we possessed were at
immediate command, and where I could work from early morn to dewy eve
without fear of interruption of any kind. Then, when all my timbers
were cut, shaped, and fitted, it would be a comparatively simple matter
to transfer them to the islet by means of the boat, and there erect them
and fit them together.
From such observations as I had already been able to make I had come to
the conclusion that the barrier reef upon which the _Yorkshire Lass_ lay
stranded would probably be found to encircle the group completely--with,
perhaps, a breach or two in it somewhere; and, as the determination of
this point seemed to me a matter of some importance, I decided that our
next exploration should be conducted with that object. Accordingly,
upon the morning of the fifth day after our first expedition we again
left the wreck, the boat being well stocked with everything we could
think of as likely to be required during a week's cruise.
As before, we started by steering a northerly course, and in due time
arrived off the entrance of the channel which we had explored on our
first trip, and which had proved to lead to the centre of the group.
But on this occasion, instead of entering the channel as before, I
continued to push northward, the barrier reef still holding intact on
our port hand while to starboard lay what proved to be the most
northerly island of the group. As we coasted along its north-westerly
shore we were able to see that, while the southern portion of it was low
and flat, a range of hills occupied its eastern side, while another less
lofty and less extensive range marked its north-western extremity. But
the land looked savage, unattractive, uninviting. We therefore made no
attempt to land, contenting ourselves with the maintenance of a strict
and continuous scrutiny of the country through the telescope.
Uninviting, however, as was the aspect of the island, it became markedly
more so when we were presently favoured with a glimpse of some of its
inhabitants, of which, thus far, we had seen nothing. We had just
rounded the headland that was the most northerly point of the group
visible from the deck of the _Yorkshire Lass_, and had hauled up close
to the wind to fetch another point, some four miles distant to the
north-eastward, when, scrutinising the shore through the telescope, I
saw two creatures suddenly burst through the dense scrub that seemed to
be the only form of vegetation growing thereabout, and begin--or,
possibly, it might have been, continue--what had all the appearance of a
desperate fight, on the open beach.
We were at that moment not more than a quarter of a mile from the shore
and but little farther than that from the spot where the fight was
taking place. The creatures were therefore within plain view of us,
while the telescope clearly revealed every detail of what was happening,
and of the creatures themselves, but so incredibly agile were they in
their movements that several minutes elapsed before I was able to do
more than just form a rough estimate of their size; but presently the
boat drew up fairly abreast of them, and then I directed Billy, who was
steering, to haul the fore-sheet to windward to deaden the boat's way,
for I was curious to see what would be the outcome of the struggle.
The combatants were well matched as to size and activity, there
appearing to be not a pin to choose between them in those respects. I
set them down to be about the same size as an ordinary donkey, but they
did not in the least resemble donkeys as to shape; indeed at first sight
they seemed to be more like gigantic frogs. That, however, was merely a
first impression, for there presently occurred a momentary pause in the
fight--presumably to enable them to get their second wind--and then I
was enabled to note details accurately. Their hind legs were,
proportionately, as long as those of frogs, but much more muscular,
while their fore legs appeared to be not more than a foot long, all four
extremities being armed with exceedingly stout and formidable claws.
Unlike frogs, however, they boasted powerful tails that seemed to serve
very much the same purpose as that of the kangaroo, both as a weapon and
a propellant. At the base it was the same thickness as the body,
tapering away to a point, and it appeared to be about the same length as
the body. The head was, however, the most remarkable feature of the
animal. When seen in profile it was not unlike those of the apes we had
encountered, but it was evidently even more formidable, for projecting
from its nose was a stout, sharp horn, similar to that of a rhinoceros,
while a pair of long tusks projected from its upper jaw. In colour the
animal was a greyish brown, dark on the upper part of the body, fading
to a dirty white on the lower. A serrated ridge of what might be loose
skin ran along its back from the nape of the neck to the extremity of
the tail, and the body appeared to be thickly dotted with wart-like
excrescences. Altogether it had very much more the appearance of a
reptile than of any other class of the animal kingdom. These details I
was able to observe during the short pause in the fight to which I have
already alluded, but in less than a minute the struggle was resumed with
apparently greater ferocity than ever. Their method of fighting was as
remarkable as their general appearance. Facing his opponent and
crouching low, at a distance of some three or four yards apart, one of
them would suddenly spring high in the air and land upon the body of his
adversary, striking furiously with claws, tusks, and tail, while the
other, throwing himself on his back, would lash out as vigorously with
his own weapons. Then the two would grip, rolling over and over each
other, and for a few minutes it would be impossible to see what was
happening, so quick were their movements and dense the cloud of dust
that they raised. Then would occur a brief pause, to be followed by a
further renewal of the fight. But after about a quarter of an hour it
became evident that the struggle was nearly over. The end came with
dramatic suddenness: the one which happened to be lying upon his back
made a lucky upward stroke with his hind claws, disembowelling his
antagonist as the latter descended upon him, and a moment later he was
tearing great morsels of flesh from the still writhing body of his late
adversary.
"Let draw the fore-sheet, Billy," I exclaimed. "We'll get away from
here as quickly as the wind will take us." For the sight was a horrible
and disgusting one.
An hour later we arrived off a gap about a mile wide between two
headlands, this gap forming the entrance of a noble bay some eight miles
long by five miles wide at its widest part. And, curiously enough,
immediately opposite that gap there occurred a corresponding gap or
break, about two miles wide, in the barrier reef, so that, had the place
been known to mariners, a ship in distress might have passed through
this break in the reef and sailed straight into the bay, even in the
hardest gale that ever blew.
Naturally, I at once headed the boat into the bay, and we sailed to its
farther extremity, hugging the western shore all the way, and still
maintaining a close watch upon the country generally through the
telescope. It was very rugged and broken until we reached the bottom of
the bay, where the hills, from a height of some eight hundred feet, sank
into the plain. The hill-sides, inside as outside the bay, nourished a
fairly dense growth of low, coarse scrub, that I searched with the
glass, in vain, for any sign of life. But I noticed, very early after
our passage between the two headlands, that, for some reason which I was
quite unable to guess at, the waters of the bay were swarming with
sharks--the first that we had seen since the occurrence of the wreck--
wherefore I at once christened the great sheet of water "Shark Bay",
while to the island itself I gave the name of "North Island."
The headlands that guarded the entrance to Shark Bay were a pair of
lofty promontories rising to a height of some four or five hundred feet,
forming part of the range of hills that engirdled the bay on either
hand; but while the range on the western side sloped down to the water's
edge, sinking into a plain at a distance of about ten miles from the
entrance, the range on the eastern side, some sixteen miles long,
gradually receded from the shore line as it swept southwards, the space
between its foot and the beach being occupied by a swamp lying so low
that it was difficult to judge, in places, the precise line of
demarcation between land and water. The southern half of the island
consisted entirely of low, flat ground, sparsely covered with coarse
grass and isolated clumps of scrub, across which, at a distance of some
eight miles, the high, precipitous cliffs of the island where we
encountered the apes could be distinctly seen.
By the time that we arrived at the inner, or southern extremity of the
bay the sun had declined to within a finger's width of the ridge of the
western range of hills. It was clear, therefore, that there could be no
further exploration for us until the morrow, and I began to look about
in search of a suitable spot whereon to pitch our camp for the night.
And to choose seemed difficult. The western shore of the bay, with its
broken ground and scrubby vegetation looked uninviting to say the least
of it, in addition to which it was on the other side of those same
hills, at a spot only a few miles distant, that we had, that afternoon,
witnessed the terrific fight between those two horrible, unknown
creatures; and I had no inclination to place ourselves where we might
perchance make closer acquaintance with other creatures of a similar or
perhaps even more ferocious kind. The eastern shore of the bay was a
swamp, and consequently out of the question. I therefore turned my
attention to the plain that formed the southern part of the island,
when, looking in that direction, I saw an animal of some sort squatting
on its hind-quarters on the beach, staring at us. It was only about a
quarter of a mile distant and, bringing the telescope to bear upon it, I
at once identified it as either the victorious fighter of the afternoon
or a creature similar in every respect. It was hardly likely to be the
same beast, however, for I thought it doubtful whether the long arm of
coincidence would bring the same creature within our ken again so soon;
moreover the animal at that moment focused by the lenses of the
telescope showed no wounds or other signs of recent battle.
"I'll have a shot at the beggar if he will only remain as he is half a
minute longer," I exclaimed. "Take the telescope, Billy, and watch.
I'll aim for his heart, and you will be able to see whether or not I
score a hit." And, thrusting the telescope into Billy's hands, I
snatched up a rifle.
"Four hundred and fifty yards should be about right," I muttered as I
adjusted the back sight of the weapon to that range; then, raising the
rifle to my shoulder and bringing the sights into line on that part of
the still motionless beast's body where I supposed its heart to be, I
pressed the trigger.
The "plop" of the bullet upon the creature's hide distinctly reached my
ear a second or two after the crack of the rifle; but instead of
toppling over, dead, as I fully expected, the beast simply wheeled about
and, in a sequence of enormous bounds, quickly vanished in the distance.
"By Jove!" I exclaimed, in amazement, "what an extraordinary thing.
I'll swear I hit him. I had him as neatly covered as possible; my hands
were as steady as rocks; and there is not enough wind to deflect the
bullet; furthermore, I heard it strike."
"Yes; so did I," agreed Billy. "I am certain that you hit the brute,
Mr Blackburn. I can't say for certain that I actually _saw_ the bullet
hit, but I believe that a second or two after you fired, and an instant
before the beast turned and bounded away, I saw a tiny dark spot on the
dirty white skin of its breast."
"I wonder whether you really did, or whether it was merely imagination,"
said I. "Anyway, the beggar must be a tough one to kill; for while I
feel as certain as you do that I hit him, the fact remains that he was
very far from being dead when we last saw him; furthermore, that yonder
plain harbours such creatures is a strong argument against our camping
there to-night; the only thing, therefore, that I can see for it is to
stand off-shore for a mile or two, anchor the boat, and rough it aboard
her for the night."
Which we did. And ample reason had we to congratulate ourselves upon
our decision, for shortly after nightfall and all through the hours of
darkness our ears were assailed by an almost continuous succession of
such hair-raising shrieks and howls, roars and bellowings, as thoroughly
convinced me that North Island was no sort of dwelling-place for human
beings with a penchant for peace and quietness. Furthermore, there was
a moon, that night, well advanced in her second quarter, and at frequent
intervals during a particularly restless night I caught glimpses of
shadowy forms moving restlessly hither and thither ashore.
With the arrival of dawn next morning we were astir; and after an early
breakfast the anchor was hove up and we got under way to resume our
voyage of exploration. On the previous afternoon we pretty closely
skirted the western shore of the bay; now, on our way out, we as closely
hugged the eastern shore, which I kept under continuous scrutiny with
the help of the telescope. But nothing worthy of record was seen; and
that day's voyage might be dismissed with the mere mention of it, but
for the fact that when we were about half-way down the bay we reached a
spot where the water and the swamp were so intermingled that we actually
ran right into a vast bed of rushes without grounding. There was,
perhaps, nothing very remarkable about that, but there was a peculiarity
about those rushes that Billy was the first to observe and remark upon,
namely, their absolutely perfect straightness. This inspired me with an
idea: our stock of ammunition was limited, and when it should become
exhausted, what were we to do? So long as we remained upon the group we
_must_ have weapons of some sort, and the only substitute for the rifle
and revolver that I could think of was the bow and arrow. I cut one of
the rushes and found it to consist of an exceedingly hard outer casing
filled with soft pith; it was remarkably light; and it instantly
occurred to me that the smaller, thinner rushes--they ranged from about
an eighth of an inch up to quite two inches in diameter--would make
ideal arrows. We therefore set to work, there and then, and cut about
two hundred reeds of suitable diameter, each of them being long enough
to make at least two arrows. When, toward sunset that evening, we again
reached the little islet that I had resolved to make our home--and which
I named Eden because it was so like a garden--the first thing we did was
to spread our reeds out on the grass to dry; next we rigged the tent--
for we intended to spend the night on the island--and then Billy and I
took a walk up as far as the shoulder of the hill, from which was to be
obtained a view of the sea, upon the off-chance of there being a sail of
some sort in sight. But, as I more than half expected, the ocean was
bare. We met with no adventures, unpleasant or otherwise, that night,
but enjoyed several hours of sound, dreamless sleep, and awoke refreshed
the next morning to pursue our voyage of exploration.
Nor did we meet with any adventures worth recording on the third day of
our voyage. We sailed past the eastern end of the island inhabited by
the natives, leaving it about two miles on our starboard hand as we
steered south; then we sailed past another and much bigger island, which
I estimated to measure some sixteen miles long by about fourteen miles
wide. It was in the form of a double-coned hill sloping on all sides
down to the water's edge, the higher of the two cones being about nine
hundred feet high, and the other perhaps two hundred feet less. It was
thickly wooded from beach to summit, and I had no doubt that many of the
trees we saw bore edible fruits; but we did not land to test the matter.
Rather late in the afternoon we arrived abreast another and much
smaller island that proved to be the southernmost of the group. This we
named "South Island"; and about sunset we ran into a tiny bay close to
its western extremity and, anchoring the boat, passed the night in her,
this time without disturbance of any kind.
Continuing our circumnavigation of the group, we reached the wreck again
about an hour before sunset on the fourth day of our travels, keeping
within the lagoon all the time and thus confirming my theory that the
reef completely encircled the whole group. I estimated that in the
course of those four days we sailed a distance of about one hundred and
fifty miles, but it was well worth it, for I now had considerable
knowledge of the general characteristics of the entire group, to which I
could add when I set out to traverse the intersecting channels.
The matter about which I was now most anxious was the erection of our
projected house on our little islet of Eden; and to the cutting and
shaping of the timber that was to be employed in its construction Billy
and I at once devoted ourselves energetically, making remorseless
inroads upon the wreck for the required materials, but maintaining the
cabins and after part of the ship intact, that we might not deprive
ourselves of the one dwelling-place until the other was ready to receive
us. And I was all the more anxious to get this important piece of work
completed without loss of time because I had a suspicion that in those
latitudes there is what is known as a "hurricane season", during which
extremely violent gales are prevalent, and I knew that the very first of
these--when it came--might destroy the wreck and so turn us out of house
and home.
No sooner had we begun our work than I recognised the wisdom that had
prompted me to prepare a carefully drawn detailed plan of our future
house beforehand, for now I was able to determine, by reference to my
plan, the exact dimensions and shape of every piece of timber required,
thus saving a vast amount of time and labour that must otherwise have
been spent in consideration, and in the tentative fitting together of
the several pieces.
There is no need to tax the patience of the reader by describing in
detail our daily progress. Let it suffice to say that we worked all day
and every day from dawn to sunset, until at length, after five weeks of
strenuous but uneventful labour, punctuated at intervals by
thunderstorms of terrific violence, accompanied by torrential downpours
of rain--which we thankfully utilised for the replenishment of our
fresh-water supply--the carpenter work of our projected house was
finished, and then came the still more formidable task of erection.
We began by loading our boat with as much as she would carry of the
building materials and the requisites for a few days' stay upon the
islet; and then we left the wreck, arriving at our destination rather
late the same evening, taking the short cut through those parts of the
intersecting channels that we had already traversed upon the occasion of
our discovery of the islet. The choice of a site for the house, and the
unloading and conveyance of the tools and building materials to that
site occupied the whole of another day, for the site chosen was on the
eastern slope of the hill, about a mile distant from the cove where the
boat lay, involving the carrying of several heavy loads of timber all
that distance up-hill; but it was well worth the labour, for the
situation afforded a magnificent and uninterrupted view of the open sea
to the eastward, while toward the west and south-west we had a view of a
considerable portion of the island with the remarkable precipitous
cliffs, and a broad stretch of lagoon to the south of it.
Spending the night of that very fatiguing day on Eden, we returned to
the wreck on the day following, a fair wind the whole way enabling us to
accomplish the trip in time to load up the boat that same evening in
readiness for an early start next day. This mode of procedure was
followed for nearly a month; by the end of which period we had
transported from the wreck to our islet the whole of the material for
our house, the chests of treasure, the ship's medicine-chest, all the
tools of every description that were to be found in the ship, all the
arms and ammunition, the chronometer and other navigating instruments,
the charts, and a considerable quantity of the most valuable contents of
the lazarette; after which we were practically independent of the wreck;
for as soon as we had built our house we should be in possession of
everything absolutely necessary to the maintenance of life and health.
The house, however, still remained to be built, and this task kept Billy
and me busy for another six weeks; but when it was finished we found
ourselves, relatively speaking, in clover, for our house consisted of a
strongly-built, weather-proof bungalow containing living-room, store-
room, two bedrooms, kitchen, scullery, fuel house, and other
outbuildings, with a stoep and veranda extending all round it; and it
was roofed with deck planking, caulked, thoroughly well tarred, and then
coated with sand. The furniture was of course a bit rough, but it
served its purpose, and it was eked out by the addition of a couple of
comfortable arm-chairs and six deck-chairs from the wreck, with, of
course, beds and bedding, table linen, crockery, cutlery, and all the
cooking gear.
This great task accomplished, my next business was to run the boat,
single-handed, to and fro between the islet and the wreck, removing from
the latter everything that might by any chance be of the slightest value
to us, while Billy, having developed an ambition to lay out a
considerable expanse of the slope in front of the house as a garden, put
in his time in the realisation of that ambition. After a time I was
able to lend a hand at this job; and I finished up by setting on end, in
front of the house, the brigantine's spare main topmast, which made a
fine flagstaff, upon which I proposed to hoist the ship's ensign, union-
down, if ever a ship should heave in sight.
CHAPTER TEN.
A SPIDER'S WEB!
My next task was one which I felt I had already neglected too long,
namely, the provision of weapons to supplement our firearms, and so save
our ammunition for cases of extreme emergency. This I proposed to do by
the manufacture of bows and arrows, if I could find materials suitable
for the purpose. So far as the arrows were concerned, I had already
found perfect material for the shafts in the bundle of rushes I had cut
in the Shark Bay swamp, and which had by this time dried and hardened in
the air until they had become all that I could wish for. But I still
required wood from which to make bows, and I spent a whole day
unsuccessfully searching the woods of Eden for suitable trees. But it
did not follow that because there were no suitable trees on our own
islet, there were none on any of the other islands of the group;
therefore on a certain evening I announced my intention of starting next
morning upon a further voyage of exploration and discovery.
In pursuance of this intention, immediately after breakfast on the
following morning, I put two rifles in the boat, with an ample supply of
cartridges, while we each carried a brace of revolvers in a belt
strapped round our waists; in addition to which I took along with me a
ship's cutlass to serve instead of an axe with which to cut any suitable
boughs we might chance to find.
For prospecting purposes I chose the western island of the group, not
only because it was the largest and most densely wooded but also because
I seemed to remember vaguely having seen, when sailing past it on my way
to and from the wreck, certain trees resembling yews, than which, of
course, nothing could be better for my purpose. We got under way with a
fine fair wind, and headed for East Channel, entering which we ran close
in under the precipitous cliffs that formed the northern coast-line of
the island inhabited by the natives. Thence we passed into North Island
Channel, with the mysterious North Island on our starboard hand; and as
the boat buzzed merrily along I kept the telescope focused upon the
wide, flat plain that formed the southerly half of the island, upon the
off-chance of catching another glimpse of some of its weird inhabitants.
But we saw nothing. Then, rounding the southern extremity of North
Island, we entered the North-west Channel and, with West Island close
aboard on our port hand, hauled up to the northward, keeping a sharp
look-out for the trees of which I was in search.
It was about noon when I spotted a clump of those trees growing all
together at no great distance from the shore, and we at once headed for
them and grounded the boat upon the beach. Looking well to our weapons,
to ensure that they were in working order, Billy and I each shouldered a
rifle and made our way toward the clump of trees. The grass was waist-
high and very matted, rendering the going rather difficult, but the
distance was a mere trifle, and in about ten minutes we were at the
trees.
I looked well at them, and came to the conclusion that if they were not
actually yews they were of very similar character, sufficiently so at
least to justify me in testing their quality. I accordingly climbed
into one of them and, with some care, selected about a dozen suitable
branches, which I hacked off with my cutlass and threw to the ground,
where Billy retrieved them from the long grass. This done, we decided
that the next thing in order was to pipe to lunch, which meal we
discussed in comfort and at leisure aboard the boat.
Luncheon over, we agreed that a little fruit would be acceptable and,
leaving the boat, we set out to hunt for some. The vegetation on this
eastern side of the island was not nearly so dense and impenetrable as
we had found it on the west side, where we landed upon the occasion of
our first boat excursion, the undergrowth here being almost entirely
absent; consequently, apart from the trouble of forcing a passage
through the long matted grass, we experienced little difficulty in
penetrating the woods. But where the timber grew thickly it was,
comparatively speaking, very dark, and the sudden transition from
brilliant sunlight in the open spaces to the deep shadow of the thickly
wooded parts was distinctly trying to our eyes.
We went warily, halting at frequent intervals and listening for any
sounds that might warn us of approaching danger--for we were now upon
the biggest island of the group and we knew not what dangerous forms of
life might be lurking within the recesses of the forest--when, as we
were looking about us for fruit-bearing trees of some kind, quite
suddenly the woodland silence was broken by a rapid succession of
piercing cries that somehow suggested to us the idea of a cat in a state
of acute terror and physical distress.
"Hark! what is that?" exclaimed Billy, laying his hand upon my arm. "It
sounds as though there was a cat somewhere quite near, in the grip of an
enemy. Let's look for and rescue the poor thing, if we can, Mr
Blackburn. A cat is just the one thing needed to complete the homelike
look of our bungalow. The poor thing is over there, somewhere, and I'm
sure it is in terrible distress."
We hurried in the direction indicated by Billy's pointing hand, and, a
few seconds later, saw, at a distance of a yard or two ahead of us, a
commotion in the long grass, as though some creature or creatures buried
in it were engaged in a violent struggle. The spot happened to be in
deep shadow, and the thought came to me that, hidden in the thick masses
of that tangled grass, some small animal might be fighting for its life,
possibly in the embrace of a snake that, as likely as not, might be of a
deadly venomous species. Therefore I put forth a restraining hand and
said sharply to Billy:
"Stay here, and do not come until I call you. I will go alone and see
what all the trouble is about."
With a couple of strides I reached the scene of the commotion, the cries
meanwhile pealing out as piercingly as ever, and as I stooped to
investigate, my cap came into contact with something that yielded
slightly to the touch, and was snatched off my head. Surprised and a
little startled by the unexpectedness of the happening, I straightened
up, to see my cap apparently suspended in mid air! Still more
surprised, I stretched forth my hand and seized the cap to replace it
upon my head, when I found that it strongly resisted my efforts, and,
looking closely to discover the reason, I saw that it had become
entangled in a spider's web! Yes, _a spider's web_! but such a web as I
venture to say very few men save myself have ever seen. It hung
suspended from a branch quite ten feet above the ground, it was tightly
strained between the trunks of two trees at least eight feet apart, and
it reached right down to the ground, where it was strongly interwoven
with the long grass. But that web was not spun to catch flies; the
meshes were from two to four inches wide; and although the thread was so
fine as to be invisible in the subdued light, until closely looked for,
it was enormously strong; so strong indeed that it required quite a
powerful tug on my part to disengage my cap. My efforts to do so caused
the web to vibrate strongly, and that, I suppose, irritated the owner,
for while I was still tugging, the brute suddenly appeared from nowhere
in particular, running swiftly over the web in the direction of the
still entangled cap. And that spider was in perfect keeping with the
web that he had spun. There are home-staying people who, in their
wonderful wisdom, will doubtless shake their heads and smile
incredulously at what I am about to say, but possibly there may be among
my more widely travelled readers one or two who will know, from
experience, that I am not exaggerating when I say that the body of the
creature--of a deep ruby colour--was as big as the head of an average-
sized man! Its head was about the size of an orange; it had a pair of
wicked-looking eyes that fairly blazed with fury as, catching sight of
me, it suddenly halted, glaring at me, emitting a low, angry, hissing
sound, and clashing its formidable jaws together in what looked like an
access of perfectly demoniac ferocity. Struck motionless for the
moment, in sheer amazement, I quickly recovered myself and, believing
that the thing was about to spring at my face and inflict a possibly
fatal bite, I raised my cutlass and, with a slashing blow, clove the
creature through.
Leaving the severed parts of the body still clinging tenaciously to the
web, I next turned my attention to the screaming, frantically struggling
creature at my feet. A single glance sufficed to show that it was
obviously feline, about as big as a full-grown cat; and it had somehow
become entangled in the bottom meshes of the web. It was fighting
desperately but ineffectually to free itself; indeed its struggles
seemed to have but the more hopelessly involved it, for although it had
torn a hole several feet long in the bottom of the web it was still held
fast by a dozen or more of the threads, while its body was completely
enveloped in layer upon layer of the tough, tenaciously glutinous web.
The unfortunate animal was evidently near to the point of exhaustion
from its violent efforts to break loose, and when I bent over it the
poor thing looked up at me and whined piteously, as though appealing for
help. It was an appeal that I could by no means resist; therefore,
taking the creature in my hands, I tore it free by main force, parting
thread after thread until all were severed.
Whether it was that the poor little beggar was too completely exhausted
to struggle further, or whether it instinctively understood that I meant
well by it, I cannot say, but the fact remains that from the moment it
felt itself in my grasp it ceased to struggle and, when it was
completely freed from the web, lay quite passively in my arms. I
carried it to where Billy still stood awaiting my return and, showing it
to him, said:
"Here is your `cat', Billy; but you mustn't touch it yet, for it is in a
filthy state, having been tangled up in the most amazing spider's web I
ever saw."
Of course the boy immediately fired a whole broadside of questions at me
relative to my recent adventure, also he must needs be taken to see the
web, and the defunct spider, after which, forgetting all about the fruit
which we had started to seek, we re-entered the boat and set out upon
our return to Eden, which we reached shortly before sunset. As we
worked our way back through the winding channels Billy beguiled the time
by taking our newest acquisition upon his lap and endeavouring to free
it from the clinging tangle of web in which it had enveloped itself, and
so agreeable did the operation appear to be to the animal that it lay
quite passive, permitting itself to be handled freely; and eventually,
to Billy's great delight, it started to purr.
For my own part, however, reflection caused me to question whether I had
been wise in introducing this new member to our family circle. Had it
been a dog I should have had no doubts; a dog would have been a
delightful companion for both of us, but this creature--what was it? As
I have already said, it was about the size of a full-grown cat, and it
undoubtedly belonged to the cat tribe; but despite its size I judged it
to be a mere kitten, and quite a young one at that. Its legs were much
thicker and more muscular and its fur was shorter and not so fine as
that of the domestic cat; and although I had seen a good many domestic
cats I had never seen one marked like this creature, a rich, ruddy brown
on the head, shoulders, and fore-quarters, shading off to a light tawny
colour at the hind-quarters and the tail, with just a suggestion of
darker spots here and there; white on the throat, breast, belly, and the
inside of the legs. It occurred to me that if my suspicions were
correct we might eventually find that we had introduced a decidedly
awkward member into our domestic circle. But, meanwhile, I kept my
suspicions to myself.
Billy displayed the utmost interest in his new pet; apparently he was
unable, for the moment, to think of anything else. He was particularly
anxious that the little beast should settle down in the house and become
thoroughly domesticated, and with that object in view he at once
proceeded to liberally smear its fore paws with part of our slender
remaining stock of butter, having heard that cats so treated never
deserted the house in which they had received such hospitality. Next,
he set to work to make a kennel out of odds and ends of material left
over from the construction of our house. As for me, I considered that I
was far more usefully employed in stripping the bark from the branches
which I had gathered, and converting them into bows.
Our respective enterprises progressed as satisfactorily as could be
desired. Billy's protege--which in a moment of inspiration he had given
the highly original name of "Kit"--fed to repletion upon broth and fish,
was apparently quite content to bask in the sun all day on the floor of
the veranda, to be petted and played with by us when we could spare the
time, and to take up his quarters at night in Billy's kennel, upon a
luxurious bed of sweet-scented hay; while the bows, upon which I
expended some pains, promised to be everything that I could desire.
Billy and I made another voyage to the swamp in North Island and
collected reeds enough to make some hundreds of arrows, which we headed
with hard, sharp thorns, embedded in about three inches of clay at the
head to impart steadiness of flight to the missile, an arrangement which
I found to answer admirably. Then, when our bows were completed, we set
up a target in front of the house and practised assiduously, until
within a fortnight we became sufficiently expert to hit a six-inch
bull's-eye, at two hundred yards, every time. Having attained to this
degree of skill, we could get as many birds as we needed for food
without the further expenditure of any ammunition; we accordingly
hoarded the remainder of our powder and shot against the possible moment
when we should be in dire need of it.
Striving for perfection, I made twelve bows before I was quite satisfied
with the result of my efforts. Thus, allowing one bow for each of us,
and a second as a stand-by, I had eight bows for which I had no
particular use. They did not quite come up to my standard, yet I did
not care to destroy them; after some consideration, therefore, I decided
that they might be used as a medium for the establishment of friendly
relations between ourselves and our neighbours, the natives on Cliff
Island. Accordingly, on a certain day, placing the superfluous bows and
a number of arrows in the boat, and taking our rifles and revolvers with
us, Billy and I started to pay our visit.
Heading south, a run of five miles brought us, in the course of an hour,
to the western extremity of Cliff Island, rounding which we presently
saw that the natives appeared to be all at work in their fields of maize
and sugar, or tending their fruit-trees. The sight of our sails,
gliding along within a short distance of the beach, caused them to drop
whatever work they might be engaged upon, to watch our progress,
although the boat must by that time have become quite a familiar object
to them, so often had we passed the island on our way to and from the
wreck. Arrived at the spot where we had encountered the apes, I hauled
the boat to the wind, ran her in upon the beach, and stepped ashore.
This was the first time that I had landed upon the island since that
memorable occasion, and consequently I was not surprised to observe that
my action created something of a commotion among the inhabitants. The
alarm trumpets were sounded, and there was again a stampede on the part
of the women and children toward the curious caves in the cliff-face,
while the men came running together and rallying round an individual who
appeared to be their leader, or chief. Meanwhile I walked slowly up the
narrow beach to the level ground beyond, and there stood with both hands
upraised in token of amity.
The man whom I assumed to be the chief stood intently regarding me for
several minutes, as though endeavouring to gather from my actions what
my motive for landing on the island might be; whereupon I beckoned, and
then again raised my hands above my head. By way of response the chief
raised his hands for a moment, and then proceeded to discuss--as I
surmised--the situation with certain others who were probably minor
chiefs. Finally, after I had several times repeated my beckonings,
about a dozen of them, including the man whom I supposed to be the
chief, came slowly toward me, with their hands raised. Their approach
was marked by a very considerable amount of hesitation, halts being
frequent, and progress resumed only in response to vigorous beckonings
on my part, so that fully twenty minutes were consumed in traversing the
distance of some five hundred yards that originally separated us; but at
length the party arrived within about a dozen yards of me, and there
finally halted.
The moment had evidently arrived for me to declare my intentions. I
therefore drew from my pocket a necklace of big turquoise-blue beads
that formed part of the "truck" provided by the late skipper Stenson for
purposes of trade, and, holding it aloft, advanced with a friendly smile
toward the chief, who seemed more than half inclined to turn tail and
run. As I purposely moved very slowly and deliberately, however, he
stood his ground; and when I halted before him and placed the necklace
round my own neck, a low murmur of admiration escaped the party. Then,
removing the beads from my own neck, I stepped slowly forward again and
lightly dropped them round the neck of the chief, who, I thought, seemed
to find some difficulty in deciding whether he was the more frightened
or delighted. But I continued smiling upon him in friendly fashion, and
offered my right hand, in token of amity, a sign which he seemed to
understand, for after a moment of hesitation he placed his hand in mine
and gave a friendly squeeze, which I instantly returned.
I now turned toward the boat and, saying: "Come with me; I have
something to show you," beckoned the party to follow me. Of course they
did not understand my words, but they must have correctly interpreted
the tones of my voice, for they followed me without hesitation, halting
at the top of the bank, however, to take a good look at the boat and
exchange excited remarks concerning her--as I easily conjectured from
their animated gestures.
Meanwhile, advancing to the boat, I took from Billy a small wooden
target that I had prepared, together with a bow and sheaf of arrows.
The target I fixed up on the beach and, stationing myself at about a
hundred yards from it, directed the attention of my little audience,
first to the bow, then to an arrow which I drew from the quiver, and
finally to the target. Then, fitting the arrow to the string, I drew
the bow to its full extent, and the next moment the arrow was quivering
in the bull's-eye, to the amazement and audible admiration of my new
friends. This feat I performed a second and a third time, and then led
the party to the target, that they might see for themselves how firmly
were the arrows embedded in it; and this evidently provoked in them
further admiration, for they at once plunged into an animated discussion
of the matter, some at least of them already appreciating the value of
the bow as a lethal weapon, for one of the party, admirably mimicking
the action of an ape coming up the beach, then drew an imaginary bow,
and, instantly clapping his hand over his heart, fell back in an
imitation of the death-agony.
I patted him approvingly on the shoulder, nodded, and said: "Yes, that
is the idea, old chap; that is precisely what I want you fellows to
understand," and again they seemed to comprehend me, for they all nodded
vigorously. Then, wrenching the arrows from the target, I conducted the
party back to the hundred-yard mark, and placing the bow and an arrow in
the hands of the chief, signed to him to try his hand.
Of course he made a terrible bungle of it to start with. First, he
failed to put enough strength into the pull, and the arrow flew only a
few yards; by dint of patient coaching on my part, however, he gradually
improved, and when, after practising diligently for about an hour, he
succeeded in sending an arrow as far as the target--although several
yards wide--his delight and pride knew no bounds. I then showed him
that it was possible to hit the target at double the distance; after
which I took him to the boat and presented to him the remaining seven
bows, with their sheaves of arrows, which filled the simple fellow's cup
of joy to the brim. He insisted on conducting Billy and me through the
plantations of maize and sugar-cane, directed our attention to the
orchards of fruit-trees, and finally led us to the cliffs, which I now
saw were honeycombed with rock-dwellings, and introduced us to his own
particular mansion, which was a cave of some twelve feet wide by twenty
feet deep, very stuffy and malodorous. Here we were entertained to a
luncheon of boiled green maize cobs, and several varieties of delicious
fruits. His household consisted of an elderly woman whom I conjectured
to be his mother, two young men who, I understood, were his sons, and
five girls who might be either his wives or his daughters. When at
length we were able to effect our escape from his rather pressing
hospitality, and returned to the boat, I found that during our absence
somebody--presumably my recent host--had sent down several baskets
containing green heads of indian corn, sugar-cane, and fruit, which we
took back with us to Eden; I for my part feeling well satisfied with the
result of my visit.
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
A RAID BY THE APES.
Having thus successfully established friendly relations with the natives
I determined to maintain them, and, with this object, made frequent
calls upon the chief, who was most anxious to display the increasing
skill of himself and his subordinates in the use of the bow. And indeed
the progress made was exceedingly creditable, and quite sufficient to
enable them to put up a good defence against the apes which, I with some
difficulty gathered, were prone to swim across the channel, from time to
time, for the purpose of plundering the natives' fields and orchards.
But, if I understood my new friends aright, these raids, though not
perhaps very frequent, were occasionally of a far more formidable and
disastrous character than I had thus far imagined, not infrequently
resulting in a quite serious loss of life on the part of those natives
who were courageous enough to defend their possessions. I accordingly
decided to make and present to the plucky blacks twelve more bows, with
a sufficient supply of arrows to enable them to resist successfully the
incursions of their formidable enemies.
The work of procuring the materials necessary for the manufacture of
those weapons, and the making of them, together with the performance of
sundry odd jobs in the garden, kept me busy for nearly a month, during
which I was afforded ample opportunity to note the progress which Billy
was making in the domestication of his cat. The beast was growing fast,
and it was also developing certain markings which tended to confirm my
original suspicion that it was some species of leopard, or panther, a
circumstance that not only occasioned me considerable uneasiness but
also led me to impart my fears to Billy, and even to hint tentatively at
the advisability of shooting the creature before the full development of
its natural proclivities should render it actually dangerous. But Billy
indignantly scouted the suggestion that his pet could possibly develop
dangerous tendencies, directing my attention to the affection which it
displayed for both of us; and I was compelled to admit that, so far, his
contention was sound, for the beast followed us about like a dog. It
could scarcely endure to be separated from either of us for any great
length of time, and it seemed never so happy as when lying at full
length on the floor of the veranda, before my chair, with my feet
lightly resting upon its body, as upon a footstool. And upon the now
comparatively rare occasions when we took a trip in the boat, Kit was
invariably to be found on the beach, waiting and watching for our
return; and it was amusing to observe the delighted gambols in which he
indulged as we stepped ashore.
The new bows and arrows being at length ready, Billy and I started for
Cliff Island on a certain morning, for the purpose of presenting the
weapons to their prospective owners. Upon our arrival we were received
by the natives with their accustomed cordiality, and I at once handed
over our gift to Bowata, the chief, who was profuse in his expressions
of gratitude. I had by this time acquired a sufficient grasp of their
very simple language to enable me to make a pretty shrewd guess at their
meaning when they spoke to me, and also to make myself fairly well
understood by them, and I gathered from Bowata that the gift was
singularly opportune, inasmuch as that the apes had of late, for some
inexplicable reason, been unusually pertinacious in their raids upon the
island; but that, thanks to my original gift, their attacks had been
successfully withstood without loss of life on the part of the natives,
the invading apes having all been slain before it was possible for them
to effect a landing. The little fellow was immensely proud of those
achievements--as indeed he might well be, considering that before the
bow-and-arrow era every raid by the apes had resulted in the death of
one or two natives and the more or less serious maiming of others; and
so proud was he of the skill which he and his people had developed that
he must needs set up a target, there and then, that I might witness a
display of that skill. It now became apparent that Bowata was by no
means devoid of shrewdness, for not only had he personally practised
assiduously at the target, but he had insisted that the petty chiefs who
had been entrusted with bows should do the same; and, not content with
that, he had chosen some two dozen other men, all of whom he had
personally trained; so that when I turned up with my gift he had already
about thirty men, every one of them a quite fairly expert bowman. I
could not forbear a smile at this intelligence, imparted with the most
perfect naivete, for it almost appeared as though the man had divined my
intention to make this second gift.
And now occurred a rather remarkable coincidence; for while the display
of native skill was in full swing the trumpets were sounded, giving
warning of another approaching raid. The apes, it appeared, were
heading for a point about half a mile to the westward of the spot where
we were assembled, and toward that spot the archers, twenty in number,
including those who had been entrusted with the new bows, set off at top
speed, followed by their unarmed comrades, who merely delayed long
enough to collect such blocks of coral and rock of suitable size as
happened to be in their way. As for me, I announced my intention to
attack the brutes from the boat, if I should be in time to intercept
them; but Bowata delayed his departure long enough to beg me to allow
him and his men to deal, unaided, with the enemy, as every victory
gained by his people increased their confidence in themselves. But, he
added, if any of the apes should escape and attempt to swim back to
their own island, I should be rendering good service by destroying them
on the way. The sound common sense of both these contentions I
instantly recognised.
Keeping well off-shore, that we might be safely out of range of stray
arrows, Billy and I arrived, in the boat, off the scene of the impending
struggle, while the leading ape was still a good three hundred yards
from the beach, and I was glad to see that the blacks were keeping cool
and withholding their fire, instead of wasting their arrows by
discharging them prematurely. The apes were swimming easily, and
keeping so well together that it was only with difficulty I was able to
count them. Billy and I were agreed that they totalled sixteen, which,
if I had understood Bowata aright, was far and away the most formidable
number that had ever been encountered; and I looked to our rifles and
edged the boat in a little nearer the shore, to be ready for possible
eventualities; then, as the first arrow was discharged, I brought the
boat to the wind and hove her to.
That first shot was a miss; but the second shot scored, for I saw the
leading ape shake his head angrily, and go through the motion of
plucking an arrow from his neck; he swam a few yards farther, however;
then he suddenly flung up his arms and rolled over in the water,
motionless.
I was glad to see that the natives had assimilated the advice I had
endeavoured, somewhat laboriously, to impart to them, to shoot singly at
a selected mark, thus economising arrows, and promoting good shooting.
They were adopting those tactics now, and the soundness of them was
demonstrated by the fact that no less than five of the apes were put
_hors de combat_ before the feet of any of them touched bottom and they
started to wade ashore. Then, indeed, as some half-dozen of the huge
creatures upreared themselves simultaneously, revealing the whole of
their bodies above the hips, the blacks betrayed signs of panic, a whole
flight of arrows greeting the brutes. But if that indiscriminate
discharge was indeed the result of panic it was nevertheless thoroughly
effective, for every one of the monsters went down, either dead or too
desperately wounded to be capable of further effort. The fate of their
comrades, however, seemed in no wise to dismay or act as a deterrent to
the survivors, who, five in number, pressed resolutely on and, finding
bottom, rose in quick succession to their feet and proceeded to scramble
ashore, actually passing between the bodies of their dead and dying
companions, and noticing them only to thrust them roughly aside in their
eagerness to get to grips with their enemies. But the latter were quite
ready for them. The success of Bowata and his fellow archers, thus far,
had inspired them with such confidence in themselves and their weapons
that I believe not a man of them would have turned tail so long as a
single arrow remained to them, and as the surviving apes advanced they
were met by such a withering flight of arrows that not one of them lived
actually to emerge from the water; and then, with yells of triumph, the
victors rushed into the water and gave the _coup de grace_ to such of
the apes as betrayed any signs of lingering life.
"Let draw the fore-sheet, Billy," said I. "We must go ashore and
congratulate our friends upon their victory."
As the boat grounded on the beach I saw that several of the natives were
still in the water, busily engaged in retrieving arrows from the bodies
of their victims; but I had a shrewd suspicion that many of the arrows
shot had been hopelessly lost; and the suspicion suggested an idea upon
which I acted later on. But for the moment my attention was fully
occupied by Bowata and his people, who crowded round us, all talking at
once, some of them excitedly relating particular incidents of the
adventure, while others were striving to express their gratitude to me
for putting into their hands the means to defend themselves successfully
against the most formidable raid that had ever been attempted by the
apes.
On our way back to Eden I gave some consideration to the idea referred
to above. It was this. Long as we had been on the group without
sighting so much as the most distant glimpse of a sail, the hope was
ever present that the day would eventually dawn when we should be
rescued from our imprisonment, mild and even agreeable as it was in some
respects; and when that day should arrive, what would happen to Bowata
and his people? Who would continue to supply them with weapons of
defence against their ferocious enemies? It was obvious that, from the
moment of our departure from the group, they would be left entirely to
their own resources; and to me it seemed that it would be only humane,
if not my actual duty, to supply the means whereby it might be possible
for them to replenish for themselves their supply of bows and arrows.
Now, how was this to be done? I could see nothing for it but to provide
them with something in the nature of a boat wherein to navigate the
channels, then to show Bowata where the wood for the bows and the shafts
for the arrows could be obtained, and finally teach him and his people
how to make bows and arrows for themselves. I fully realised that to
present the savages with a boat might be a proceeding not altogether
devoid of danger; for savages--even such apparently harmless savages as
our neighbours--were apt to develop treacherous tendencies, and, once
provided with a boat, it would be difficult to prevent them visiting our
own particular island of Eden, when, if any of our possessions should
chance to excite their cupidity, who could say what might happen? There
was, of course, a way whereby this danger might be reduced to a minimum,
and that was by so reducing the dimensions of the boat that she should
be incapable of carrying more than two men at a time; and this I
determined to do. As to material, there was plenty of such as I
required to be obtained from the wreck, for I meant the boat to be of
the simplest construction, being, in fact, nothing more than a miniature
flat-bottomed Thames punt, to be propelled by a pair of paddles.
Having settled this matter to my satisfaction, I explained my intention
to Billy that evening, as we sat together under the veranda discussing
the events of the day by the light of a glorious full moon, with Kit
sprawling as usual at my feet. My intention was to start next day with
Billy for a trip to the wreck, where I proposed to remain until I had
constructed the punt, which, I believed, could be done in something less
than a week.
Starting immediately after breakfast, taking with us the carpenter's
tool-chest, an ample supply of fruit and food, and of course Kit--who
could not possibly be permitted to roam Eden at large and be deprived of
our company for a whole week--the voyage was accomplished without
incident, and we arrived at the wreck early in the afternoon. We found
the old craft in every respect just as we had left her, excepting that
her cabins, having been securely closed during our absence, were
distinctly stuffy. This was soon remedied, however, by throwing back
the companion slide and opening the skylight and all the scuttles, after
which we filled in the remainder of the afternoon in making up the beds
in the state-rooms and preparing generally for our week's sojourn. When
all was done an hour or two of daylight still remained, which I utilised
by preparing a sketch of my proposed punt. She was to be five feet long
on her bottom, with a rising floor two feet long at each end, making her
nine feet long over all, with a beam of four feet, and sufficient
freeboard to enable her to carry two men safely in the tranquil waters
of the inner channels. Being flat-bottomed, flat-sided, and square-
ended, she was an easy model to build; there were no planks to be bent,
and as the wreck afforded abundant material, and as we did not aim at
such refinement of finish as was included in a coat of paint, we
completed our task during the afternoon of the fifth day, even to
putting her over the side into the water to "take up."
Leaving the wreck immediately after breakfast the next morning, with the
punt in tow, we arrived at our anchorage in Eden Cove about half an hour
before sunset, almost the whole of the passage being a beat to windward,
while the towage of the punt further retarded our progress. We,
however, found everything just as we had left it; and, although I think
we enjoyed the little change involved in living on the wreck, we were
glad to find ourselves once more "at home", particularly Kit, whose
rambles had been restricted to the deck of the ship, and who displayed
his delight at returning to the wider spaces of Eden by starting off at
full gallop the moment his pads touched the sand, rushing out of sight
and appearing no more until we reached the house, where we discovered
the beggar squatted on the top steps of the veranda awaiting our
arrival.
On the following morning, after breakfast, Billy and I got the boat
under way and, with the punt in tow, sailed for Cliff Island. Running
the boat in on the beach, we were quickly joined by Bowata, who informed
us that four days earlier the apes, to the number of nine, had attempted
another raid which, he proudly added, had been successfully repulsed,
but at the expense of many lost arrows; and he hinted pretty broadly
that a further gift of those very useful missiles would be highly
appreciated. Whereupon I informed him that I intended to do even better
than continue to furnish him and his people with bows and arrows--I was
going to present them with means whereby they might procure the
materials wherewith to make for themselves as many of those weapons as
they pleased; and therewith I led him down to the beach and directed his
attention to the punt.
Bowata looked at the craft and grunted his approval of her; but it was
evident that he had not the remotest notion of how she was to be the
means of providing him with bows and arrows; so, casting off her
painter, Billy and I stepped into her and, paddling along close to the
beach, showed the savage in a very practical manner how to handle her.
Next, landing Billy and taking Bowata into the punt with me, I handed
him a paddle, and, first directing his attention to the manner in which
I manipulated my own, invited him to try his hand. He proved an apt
pupil, and within the hour was able to manoeuvre the punt single-handed.
Then, beaching the punt and securing her to a stake firmly driven into
the beach, I invited Bowata and his son to enter the sailing boat,
informing them that, having given them the means to navigate the
channels, I now proposed to show them where to obtain the wherewithal
from which to make as many bows and arrows as they desired.
The pair entered the boat with a distinct suggestion of trepidation;
they could understand the punt, apparently, but they had evidently not
yet grasped the fact that it was the wind that endowed the boat with
mobility, and they seemed to regard her with distrust, as a magical
craft that might as likely as not fly away with them, never to return.
They were under the impression, it presently appeared, that we intended
to turn them adrift to shift for themselves as best they could, but when
I explained that Billy and I intended to go with them their fears
vanished, and they seated themselves contentedly enough in the bottom of
the boat in the places which I indicated. It was perfectly clear that
not only they but also their fellow-savages regarded the expedition upon
which we were embarking as a quite notable adventure, for they assembled
in force to witness our departure, admiration and apprehension in about
equal proportions being the dominant expressions upon the countenances
of those we left behind us as the boat glided smoothly and rapidly away
from the shore.
I took our guests, first of all, to West Island, upon which grew the
trees from which I had obtained the wood found to be suitable for the
making of bows; and, having directed Bowata's attention to the
characteristic peculiarities of the trees, as distinguishing them from
others, I shinned aloft into one of them, carrying with me a small
hatchet that had come from the wreck, and proceeded to lop off about a
dozen suitable branches which, with an ample supply of thorns to form
arrow-heads, were duly placed aboard the boat. Then, shoving off again,
we proceeded by way of the North-west Channel round to Shark Bay, in
North Island, where, running the boat into the swamp, we cut a goodly
stock of reeds from which to make shafts for the arrows. These two
tasks, including the time occupied in sailing from place to place and
returning, occupied the entire day, so that it was already dusk when,
having landed Bowata and his son, and our cargo of branches and reeds,
we arrived back at our own island of Eden.
The next day Billy and I again sailed for Cliff Island, where, with an
old sheath knife as a tool, I showed Bowata how to make bows and arrows,
at the same time presenting him with the hatchet, the knife, and a
quantity of cord from which to make bow-strings. We spent three days
with the natives, supervising their work of making bows and arrows; and
by the time that they had used up all the material with which I had
supplied them, they had attained to a degree of proficiency that I felt
would justify me in leaving them henceforth to their own devices.
CHAPTER TWELVE.
ISLANDS OF FIRE!
We had by this time been on the group eight months; and although, with
brief intervals spent in visits to the wreck, a sharp look-out for the
appearance of a sail in the offing had been maintained, nothing had been
sighted; and the disconcerting possibility now began to impress itself
upon me that if I continued to trust only to such an occurrence for our
deliverance we might spend _years_ waiting for that event. Most
fortunately, we had both thus far been blessed with perfect health; but
it seemed too much to expect that this immunity from sickness or
accident should continue indefinitely; and if both of us should chance
to fall sick at the same time, what would be the result? Something very
like panic seized me at the thought of such a possibility; I felt that I
had been culpably foolish in relying so implicitly, and for so long a
time, upon extraneous help; and the conviction forced itself upon me
that I must at once take steps to effect our own deliverance.
Yet what could I do? The first idea that had suggested itself to me
after the wreck of the brigantine was to build some sort of a craft in
which we could effect our escape to civilisation; but after considering
the matter I had come to the conclusion that such an undertaking would
be altogether beyond my powers, with only Billy to assist me. No doubt
I was helped to this conclusion by the conviction I then felt that
something would certainly heave in sight within the next month or two to
take us off. But with the lapse of time my confidence had insensibly
waned, and I had accordingly set to work to make our stay upon the group
as comfortable as might be. Now, however, I felt constrained to
reconsider my original conclusion; and as a preliminary I took pencil
and paper, drawing-instruments and scale, and proceeded to make
tentative sketches of such a craft as I considered essential to enable
us to make the voyage in safety and with a reasonable amount of comfort.
To insure these requirements I decided that the boat, whatever her
dimensions, must be fully decked, and that she must be powerful enough
to face and successfully battle with a whole gale of wind; also she must
be capable of being handled by Billy and myself. Taking these
requirements as a basis, I set to work upon my sketches.
The relative dimensions of the boat would be governed to a considerable
extent by her rig. A cutter-rigged craft is more powerful than any
other, but it is open to the objection that the mainsail--the cutter's
most important sail--is an awkward sail to handle in a sudden emergency,
if the craft happens to be short-handed, as we should be. I believed,
however, that this difficulty might be overcome by watchfulness and the
taking of timely precautions; therefore, after weighing the matter
carefully, I decided in favour of the cutter rig. Bearing all the above
requirements in mind, I set to work, and ultimately evolved a design for
a craft thirty feet long on the water-line by ten feet beam, and six
feet draught of water aft. To build a boat of these dimensions, with
only Billy to help me, was a sufficiently ambitious project; but I had
learned a good deal while building our existing boat; and, after all, I
felt sure that if I should need more manpower, Bowata would willingly
lend me some of his people. Also, realising that henceforth Billy and I
would be fully occupied in building the new boat, the thought occurred
to me that it was high time to secure such domestic help as would enable
us to give our whole time and thought to our work without troubling
about such matters as cooking, house-cleaning, and so on. Such help
could only be obtained through Bowata. I therefore decided to seize an
early opportunity to interview him upon the whole matter.
Meanwhile, however, now that I had at last determined to attempt the
building of a sea-going boat, I was all impatience to make a beginning;
and as I, further, came to the conclusion that the beginning--so far as
the framing of the keel, stem, and sternpost was concerned--must be made
aboard the wreck, where all the materials were at hand, we lost no time
in again removing ourselves, with all necessary goods and chattels, to
what remained of the _Yorkshire Lass_. Here I made a start by laying
out, full-size, in chalk, upon the after-deck, an accurate outline of
the keel, stem, and sternpost, which greatly facilitated my work. My
chief difficulty, I discovered, was to find bolts at once of the
required length and the necessary strength, since I could not possibly
make them; and this difficulty absorbed so much time that we spent
nearly a month on the wreck before the keel, stem, and sternpost were
framed together in readiness to be set up on the beach at Eden, where I
intended to do the remainder of the work.
The framework was much too big and heavy to be conveyed to Eden
otherwise than by towing; and as the whole trip was more or less a beat
to windward, the transport of it cost us two days, our arrival "home"
occurring so late in the afternoon that there was no time to attempt
anything further that day. But on the day following I sailed over to
Bowata's island and explained to him my requirements, finding him more
than eager to do anything and everything he could to oblige me. The
domestic question was very easily arranged, Bowata suggesting that I
should employ a man whom he could especially recommend, and who, with
his two wives, would be able to do everything required in that
particular direction; while as for labour for the building of the
cutter, he assured me I might have as many men as I wished, for as long
a time as I needed them. Nothing could be more satisfactory than this,
the only point I felt doubtful about being the domestic part of the
arrangement; but Billy settled this by undertaking to supervise the work
until the man and his wives should be trained to efficiency; and the
plan, when put into operation, worked excellently. The keel of the new
boat being now ready, the next thing was to set it up, accurately plumb,
longitudinally and transversely, upon the building blocks; and to do
this I obtained the loan of twenty natives for a day, for the keel, with
stem and sternpost attached, was much too heavy a mass of timber for
Billy and me to manipulate without assistance; and with their help the
work was most satisfactorily accomplished, they doing the manual work
under Billy's guidance while I supervised and directed the adjustments
that were frequently necessary. I next set up five stout moulds, one at
the midship section of the boat, with two aft and two forward of it,
giving the exact shape of the boat at those points, and to the moulds I
firmly attached several temporary wales and stringers, thus obtaining a
kind of skeleton giving an accurate idea of the form of the finished
boat. And when I had got thus far with my work and inspected the result
from various view-points, I was as much amazed at my own audacity in
attempting so ambitious an undertaking as I was gratified at the
appearance which it presented; for I saw before me the outline of a very
shapely, yacht-like little ship that, if I knew anything of such
matters, promised to be fast, weatherly, and a very fine sea-boat, quite
capable of taking care of herself when hove-to, even in a heavy gale of
wind. It was my intention to plank her upon the diagonal principle,
using three thicknesses of comparatively thin plank, for I had no means
by which to steam a single layer of planking of the necessary thickness
and so render it pliable enough to bend to the correct shape; while I
believed that by using thin plank I could bend it to shape unsteamed. I
am getting somewhat ahead of my yarn, however; for the progress outlined
above represented nearly three months' hard work, an appreciable
proportion of which had to be done a second time, owing to my
inexperience.
With the accession of our black helpers our domestic arrangements
flourished exceedingly, the only difficulty we experienced in connection
with them occurring during the first fortnight or three weeks after
their arrival, the trouble arising with Kit, who violently resented
their intrusion and had to be kept strictly tied up until he had learned
to understand that he must in nowise interfere with them. But even
after reaching this stage the natives had to be exceedingly careful how
they conducted themselves in his presence, for he never advanced farther
than the merest toleration of them, while when any of the other blacks
were on Eden, assisting me to build the cutter, it was absolutely
necessary to keep the beast closely confined to the house until they had
left.
I very soon made the discovery that had I been obliged to depend solely
upon the efforts of Billy and myself, I should have been compelled to
abandon the idea of building the cutter at a very early stage of the
operations. It was not so much that we found the work beyond our
strength--although in that respect we were often glad enough to have a
little additional help--but it was often necessary to have a plank or a
waling, or some such matter, held firmly in position at half a dozen
points or more at the same moment, while I fixed it; and it was on such
occasions that I welcomed the assistance of the natives. And as such
occasions occurred pretty frequently, it happened that I was kept _au
courant_ with everything of importance--and with a great deal that was
exceedingly unimportant--that occurred on Cliff Island. Thus I came to
know that, contrary to hope and expectation, the arming of the natives
with bows and arrows, with the resulting destruction of the raiding
apes, had been absolutely ineffective in checking the raids, which were
now occurring more frequently and in greater force than ever. It
appeared almost as though the brutes were possessed of sufficient
intelligence to understand that something had happened rendering it no
longer possible for attacks by small numbers to be successful, and that
they were strengthening their attacking forces accordingly, with the
evident determination to succeed ultimately at whatever cost. I was
greatly vexed to hear this, for it was evident that the existence of
such formidable beasts in the group constituted a growing menace to the
human life in it; and I was wondering how this menace was to be fought,
when Bowata and his people, without consulting me, made an attempt to
solve the problem, which, for a short time at least, seemed to be
crowned with success.
It was the height of summer, and there had been a spell of some six
weeks of very hot, dry weather, when on a certain morning, as Billy and
I, with some natives, were at work upon the cutter, the lad directed my
attention to a thin cloud of light brownish-blue smoke rising in the air
beyond Cliff Island. There was a gentle easterly breeze blowing at the
time, sweeping the smoke away in the direction of West Island, and, as
we watched, the cloud rapidly increased in density, its colour darkened,
and, somewhat to my astonishment, it seemed to spread in an easterly
direction, or against the wind. It soon became clear that it was the
forest on Apes' Island that had caught fire; and it was equally evident
that, thanks to the long dry spell, and to the fanning of the easterly
breeze, the fire was spreading with great rapidity; for within twenty
minutes of the appearance of the first light film of smoke we were able
to see, over the eastern extremity of Cliff Island, the flames speeding
up the hill-side, toward the conical summit of the island, preceded by
so vast a volume of smoke that it completely veiled the hills of West
Island from our sight. While Billy and I stood watching the rapid march
of the flames, one of the natives, noticing our interest in the
spectacle, approached and informed us that Bowata and one of his sons,
determined to drive the apes off Apes' Island, had that morning crossed
Apes' Channel in the punt which I had given them, with the avowed
intention of setting the entire island on fire, beginning at its
northern extremity--in order to drive the apes away from that part of
the island from whence they were wont to start to swim the channel--and
thence working round the shore to the eastern extremity of the island,
hoping thus to drive the anthropoids in a westerly and southerly
direction, right away from Cliff Island. As Apes' Island was everywhere
densely covered with forest and undergrowth it was exceedingly probable
that, unless something unforeseen occurred to extinguish the fire, every
living thing upon it would be destroyed, except such creatures as might
essay to swim the Middle Channel and take refuge upon West Island.
But as the day progressed, and the fire advanced, spreading ever more
rapidly as great volumes of sparks were borne by the wind on ahead of
the main body of flame, kindling subsidiary fires in advance, I began to
doubt whether West Island would escape, remembering as I did that there
was a stretch of the Middle Channel which was little more than half a
mile wide, across which such a tremendous volume of sparks as now filled
the air might easily be wafted. Toward evening my anticipation in this
respect was verified, for upon ascending to the summit of our own peak
on Eden, at the conclusion of our day's work, we saw that not only was
the surface of Apes' Island an unbroken expanse of black, smoking ashes
and charred tree-stumps, but that the fire had leaped Middle Channel,
and practically the whole eastern side of West Island was a mass of
flame. The destruction of life would of course be enormous; but such
glimpses as had thus far been afforded us of the animal life upon the
group seemed to indicate that it was inimical to mankind; and if its
destruction involved that of the apes, it was not to be greatly
regretted.
I waited three days to allow the ashes to cool, and then, taking Billy
with me, sailed for the Middle Channel, running the boat ashore on Apes'
Island at a spot where a stream of fresh water discharged into the
narrowest part of the channel. Here we landed, and started to walk
eastward over and through ashes that were ankle-deep and in places still
unpleasantly hot. I was quite prepared to find evidences that the
destruction of animal life had been tremendous; but even so I was amazed
at the innumerable scorched and shrivelled carcasses of creatures that
had made their way to the water's edge and had there perished, probably
suffocated by the smoke because they had feared to take to the water.
They lay thick upon the ground, huddled together, as far as the eye
could reach to the right and left of the spot where we landed, and the
odour of burnt flesh was almost overpowering, while flies and birds
swarmed about them in legions. The remains were mostly so far consumed
as to be impossible of identification, but here and there we came upon
what, judging from the skull and teeth, had once been a creature of the
cat tribe, probably a leopard; while the skeletons of snakes--some of
them, from their dimensions, evidently pythons--were numerous. We also
came upon several carcasses of what I thought might have been boars;
but, if they were, the creatures must have been huge specimens of their
kind. There were also a few calcined skeletons of animals that must
have been as big as or bigger than a British dray-horse, but of very
different build. They did not suggest any animal with which I was
acquainted, and I was quite unable to put a name to them. We walked two
miles or more inland before turning back, but nowhere did I see anything
suggesting the destruction of so much as a solitary ape, at which I was
in nowise surprised, for I felt sure that the apes at least would be
able to keep well ahead of the fire, and make good their escape to West
Island. But West Island was, like Apes' Island, a fire-blackened ruin
as far as the eye could see, toward both the north and the south; and if
the fire had swept clean across the island to its western shore, it
would mean another holocaust, in which the apes also would be involved,
for there was no retreat, no sanctuary beyond West Island. It was too
late to push our investigations farther that day, but I resolved that on
the morrow I would see what the western side of West Island looked like.
Accordingly, eight o'clock in the morning of the following day found
Billy and me emerging from the North-west Channel into the lagoon, and
hauling round to the southward to skirt the western shore of West
Island.
We needed not to travel so far as this, however, to discover that at
least part of West Island had escaped the ravages of fire, for upon our
arrival off the south-western extremity of Cliff Island we saw that,
owing to the greatly increased width of the Middle Channel at that
point, the direction of the wind, and the peculiar configuration of the
island itself, an area which I roughly estimated at about a hundred
square miles, at its northern extremity, had been untouched by the
flames; and this area of forest, although probably little more than a
quarter of that of the whole island, would still afford cover for a good
many animals, had they the sense--or the instinct--to escape to it.
It was not until we had rounded the northern extremity of West Island
and had followed the west coast southward for a distance of about eleven
miles that we again came upon the ruin wrought by the flames, which, we
found, had swept right across the island, leaving the area above
referred to untouched, while to the southward, as far as the eye could
see, all was black ruin and desolation. At this point, too, signs of
the devastation wrought upon the animal life of the island began to
reveal themselves in the shape first of isolated carcasses, and then of
groups of the same, rapidly becoming more numerous and more crowded as
the boat glided along southward within a stone's throw of the beach.
As I was exceedingly anxious to discover whether or not the apes had
escaped the destruction that had overtaken the other creatures
inhabiting the two fire-stricken islands, we landed at various points
along the beach, and made short investigating excursions inland, coming
upon the remains of animals and reptiles of several different kinds--the
variety indeed was astonishing--including, I regretted to see, two or
three varieties of deer; and at length we found the half-consumed
carcasses of three apes, close together; but we found no more that day.
It was by this time drawing on toward sunset; accordingly we made sail
for the wreck of the brigantine, and took up our quarters aboard her for
the night.
Early on the following morning we resumed our inspection of West Island,
starting at the point where we had left off on the previous evening, and
on this day we came upon the remains of two more apes, several miles
apart. But although those five carcasses of apes were all that we
found, it was of course quite possible that there might have been many
more, for our excursions inland were necessarily of very limited extent.
To have made anything approaching a complete examination of the burnt
area would have been the work of weeks, rather than of days, and I was
indisposed to devote very much time to such an undertaking. Moreover,
the effluvium arising from so many rapidly decomposing carcasses was, of
itself, a sufficient deterrent.
But slight and limited as was our examination, it sufficed to prove that
the island must have literally swarmed with animal life, several species
of which were, as in the case of those found on Apes' Island, quite new
to me; and late in the day, having extended our walk to the crest of a
hill, we discovered that there was, a little south of the middle of the
island, a triangular-shaped lake, about six miles long by about five
miles broad at its western end, that had served to protect and preserve
a clump of forest about two miles long; and the sounds that proceeded
from it indicated that many animals had found sanctuary there. By the
time that we had completed our survey it was too late to think of
returning to Eden that day, so we again bore up for the wreck, spending
that night aboard her and returning to our own island on the day
following.
On our way back I touched at Cliff Island and had a chat with Bowata,
relating to him the result of our trip of inspection. I told him that
we had seen very few dead apes, and hazarded the conjecture that the
brutes, retreating before the flames on their own island, had swum the
Middle Channel to West Island, on the northern and unburnt portion of
which they might have established themselves. But when he suggested
that this portion also of the island should be set on fire, to make
assurance doubly sure, I very strongly demurred, pointing out that, even
if my conjecture should be correct, the unburned forest would doubtless
be swarming with animal life other than that of the apes, and that it
would be a very great pity to destroy it all in order to effect the
extermination of the apes, unless such a drastic measure should prove to
be imperatively necessary.
After the little break following upon the firing of Apes' Island I
returned with enthusiasm to work upon the cutter, and in the course of a
month used up all the available material which I had thus far
accumulated, necessitating another visit to the wreck to obtain more. I
collected as large a quantity as I believed I could conveniently handle,
and, forming it into a raft, took it in tow for transport to Eden. The
passage, that under ordinary conditions could easily be accomplished in
a single day, occupied _five days_, and was, I think, the toughest job I
had ever undertaken in my life, the raft being so deadly sluggish in
movement that it was impossible to tow it to windward; and finally I
found myself compelled to kedge it more than half the way. But I was
glad when I had at length brought it safely into the cove and anchored
it there, for I now had enough material to carry on with for at least
four months. I estimated that another raft of equal size would suffice
to complete the cutter, and, notwithstanding the difficulties that I had
just encountered, I felt strongly inclined to return forthwith to the
wreck and procure a sufficiency for all future needs; but I was very
tired after my labours, and I finally persuaded myself to postpone the
task for a while--to my subsequent intense regret.
The anniversary of the wreck of the _Yorkshire Lass_ arrived and passed.
We had been a whole year on the group, and, so far as we knew, not a
solitary sail of any description had come within sight of the islands
during the whole of those twelve months. It was an astounding,
incomprehensible fact; I had never really anticipated such a
possibility. With the passage of each day, each week, each month, I had
said to myself--with gradually waning assurance certainly--"It cannot be
long now before a craft of some sort comes along to take us off," until
the moment when it suddenly dawned upon me that if we were ever to
escape, it must be through our own efforts--my own especially. This
conviction now came upon me with overwhelming force; my hopes of
deliverance by means of some extraneous agency suddenly sank to zero,
and I began to work with such febrile energy that it presently drew from
Billy a steadily growing flood of remonstrance.
I had by this time expended so much of my material that I was in the
very act of preparing for another visit to the wreck to obtain more when
poor Billy fell sick of some sort of a fever. Within three hours of his
seizure he became delirious and was so extremely violent that--he being
by this time a strong sturdy boy--I was obliged to at once drop
everything else to look after him and see that he did not injure himself
during the more severe paroxysms. Of course I had long ago taken the
precaution to secure possession of the ship's medicine-chest, with its
accompanying book of instructions; but the latter afforded me little
help, for I could find in it no case the symptoms of which quite
corresponded with those of my patient, and I was therefore compelled to
rely very much upon my own judgment, and upon the instructions for the
treatment of fevers in general. A liberal administration of quinine
seemed to constitute the most hopeful form of treatment, and luckily we
possessed an ample supply of the drug. I accordingly dosed Billy with
it for close upon sixty hours, when the delirium ceased and the poor boy
sank into a semi-stupor of exhaustion, which enabled one of the native
women to relieve me by watching at the patient's bedside. I had by this
time been without sleep for two nights and more than three days, and I
was therefore glad enough to be free to retire to my own room to rest
for an hour or two. Arrived there, I removed my boots and then, without
troubling to remove further clothing, flung myself upon my bed and
instantly sank into complete oblivion.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
WE EXTERMINATE THE APES.
I was aroused to consciousness by the flash of a dazzling light upon my
closed eyelids, accompanied by the crash of a terrific clap of thunder.
Opening my eyes I discovered that the room was in opaque darkness--
showing that I must have been allowed to sleep at least eight hours; but
even as I swung my feet to the floor and started to grope for my boots,
while the reverberations of the thunder-clap still rumbled and echoed in
the distance, there came another blinding flash of lightning, instantly
followed by a deafening crash of thunder; and, getting my bearings by
the illumination of the lightning, I started to my feet and, forgetting
my boots, rushed to Billy's bedside, apprehensive of what might be the
effect of the storm upon him.
I found the patient not only awake but also in his right mind.
"Well, Billy, my boy, how are you by this time?" I demanded.
"I believe I'm better, thank you, Mr Blackburn," replied the boy; "but
I feel very weak and--oh, goodness! isn't it hot?"
It was. I had just found time to become aware of the excessive heat and
closeness of the atmosphere. The perspiration was simply streaming from
every pore of my body, and I felt suffocating for want of sufficient
air. All the doors and windows of the bungalow were wide open, but the
atmosphere was absolutely stagnant, the naked flame of a newly ignited
lamp burning without the faintest flicker.
One of our native domestics was now busying herself arranging the table
in what we called the "dining-room", and in laying out the materials for
a supper for me--for it now appeared that I had slept for nearly
fourteen hours on end, and the good woman insisted that I must have a
meal at once. While these preparations were in progress I went out and
stood under the veranda to take a look at the weather.
The thunder-clap that had broken in upon my slumbers proved to be the
prelude to a terrific electrical disturbance which was now in full
action. The centre of the disturbance appeared to be almost immediately
overhead, for flash after flash of lightning was striking all round the
house, while the detonations of the thunder were continuous and so
violent that I felt the floor literally tremble beneath my feet. But
the lightning was not confined to discharges from the cloud overhead, it
was darting earthward all round us, and practically at all distances
from zenith to horizon; and so frequent were the discharges that the
illumination from them was continuous, revealing a vault packed with
enormous masses of heavy, black, writhing cloud. I stood for perhaps
five minutes fascinated by the spectacle of the vivid lightning-play;
and then, just as the native woman came out to announce that my supper
was ready, down came the rain in a perfect deluge; and in a moment the
eaves of the house, the foliage of the trees, and the earth itself
poured with soft, warm water. It was too good an opportunity to be
wasted, so I hurried to my own room, threw off my clothes, seized a
morsel of soap, and, dashing out to the midst of the downpour, treated
myself to a most delightful and refreshing bath, as a preliminary to
supper.
The rain continued for about half an hour, and then it ceased with that
abruptness which seems so characteristic of the tropics. But it had
scarcely come to an end when there arose a loud rustling of leaves among
the trees in the garden and round about the house, a blast of hot wind
poured in through the open doors and windows, violently slamming the
former and causing the latter to rattle furiously; and I had barely time
to rush and close them all when a terrific squall came roaring down upon
the bungalow. This squall was only the precursor of several that
followed each other at rapidly decreasing intervals until those
intervals became so brief as to be no longer distinguishable, and the
wind settled into a roaring gale from the westward that blew all night
and did not break until close upon noon next day.
As luck would have it, I had chosen the eastern slope of the peak as the
site upon which to erect the bungalow, consequently the structure was,
to a very great extent, sheltered from the gale by the hill behind it;
but, even so, the building quivered and shook under the stroke of the
blasts. And my heart sank as I thought of the wreck, for I felt that
she had not one chance in a thousand of weathering it out. She was on
what was now the windward reef--as it had been when she struck upon it;
the surf would pile up on the reef again, raising the level of the water
by perhaps three or four feet, and in that case the poor old _Yorkshire
Lass_ would be washed off the coral into the lagoon, and would there
sink. And with her would go all the material that I needed for the
completion of the cutter.
Then there was the cutter herself, or at least as much of her as had
thus far been put together. How would she stand the buffeting to which
she was being subjected? I was hopeful, for she was at this time merely
a skeleton, and a very imperfect skeleton at that; consequently there
would not be much for the wind to take hold of; yet I was anxious too,
for I feared lest the heavy rain might have displaced some of the keel
blocks and so let the craft down and perhaps strained her out of shape.
So anxious, indeed, was I that I would have gone down to the cove at
once, despite the fury of the wind, but the night was so pitch dark that
I could have seen nothing; nor, single-handed, could I have done
anything, whatever might have happened; so I was perforce obliged to
defer my visit until daylight. But when daylight came I fought my way
down to the cove, against the gale that was still blowing, and there
found, to my inexpressible relief, that nothing had happened but what
could be put right in an hour or two.
I was naturally most anxious to ascertain what, if anything had happened
to the wreck, but it was not until nearly a week after the gale that
Billy had progressed so far toward recovery that I was able to leave him
entirely to the care of the natives. When, however, that moment arrived
I took immediate advantage of it, starting for the scene of the wreck
immediately after an early breakfast, and enjoining Billy not to be
anxious should I be detained until the next day.
With a fair wind all the way the boat made short miles of the trip, and
I reached the scene of the wreck fairly early in the afternoon; but at
least an hour before my arrival my worst fears were realised, for where
the wreck had once been there was now no sign of her. But I knew pretty
well where to look for her, and, coasting along the inner edge of the
reef, I ultimately came upon her within a few fathoms of the reef, sunk
in six fathoms of water, and of course irrevocably lost to us. I
thought, however, that possibly some useful wreckage might be floating
about in the lagoon. I therefore worked the boat over to West Island
beach, near to which I did indeed find a few planks and some small odds
and ends that had broken adrift or floated off when the wreck went down,
and these I formed into a small raft which I towed round to Eden on the
following day.
But when I looked from the skeleton of the cutter to the small quantity
of material available for her completion, my heart sank within me, and I
felt utterly discouraged, for what I had was ridiculously inadequate.
It was not enough even to complete the shell of the craft; and where on
earth was I to get more? There were, of course, thousands of trees on
the group, and I had an axe with which to fell them; but when they were
felled, how was I to convert them into plank and scantling? It was a
problem which I puzzled over during the whole day succeeding my return
to Eden, seeking in vain for a solution, until at last it seemed that we
were really doomed to remain where we were until taken off by a ship,
even though we should grow old while awaiting her arrival.
Such a conclusion would doubtless have been terribly discouraging to
many people, but after the first shock its effect upon me was, on the
contrary, so provocative that I resumed work upon the cutter with more
resolution than ever, if that were possible, until, some six weeks
later, I had used up all my available material, and my work was perforce
brought to a standstill. But when this happened I had made such
progress that the cutter was planked up to the gunwale with the first
thickness of planking; and so thoroughly satisfied was I with my work
that I was determined _nothing_ should prevent its completion, even
though, to provide the necessary material, I should be compelled to pull
down the bungalow and break up our sailing boat. Such forcible measures
as those, however, demanded the most careful consideration before
adoption.
Meanwhile the rank luxuriance of tropical plant-growth had already
changed the fire-blackened areas of Apes' and West Islands to varying
tints of delicate green, the several varieties of new vegetation seeming
to find congenial conditions in the thick coat of ashes resulting from
the fire. But I learned from Bowata, whose people had been maintaining
a close watch upon both islands, that thus far no signs of animal life
had been detected upon either of them, although the chief agreed with me
that, whatever might be the case with Apes' Island, West Island--or at
least the unburnt part of it--must be simply swarming with living
creatures. And the conviction that this was so was causing him and his
people so much uneasiness that a permanent watch had been established at
the western end of Cliff Island, and the natives resident there, to the
number of forty, had all been armed with bows and arrows, that they
might be prepared to repel possible incursions of apes from that part of
West Island, the channel at that point being but little wider than that
which the apes were wont to swim when crossing from their own island.
The liability to incursions by the apes seemed to be the only source of
anxiety on the part of Bowata and his people. In all other respects
they appeared to be perfectly happy; for their wants were few, and so
fertile was the soil of their own island that it amply supplied all
those wants, with very little exertion on the part of the easy-going
inhabitants. The trouble was that the products of their industry
unfortunately appealed so strongly to the appetite of the anthropoids
that, to gratify it, the brutes were willing to swim a channel a mile
wide. And the trouble was serious enough, in all conscience, for--as I
gradually learned, in the course of frequent conversations with the
chief--the apes not only destroyed far more than they ate, but, until my
introduction of the bow and arrow as a weapon, they were only driven off
with the utmost difficulty, and frequently with serious loss of life on
the part of the savages. It was indeed to put an effectual end to those
frequent raids upon their property that the natives, in desperation, had
finally resorted to the drastic measure of setting fire to the island
that harboured the monsters.
The longer I meditated upon the problem of how to meet the shortage of
material for the completion of the cutter the more reluctant did I
become to resort to so extreme a measure as the breaking up of the
sailing boat, still more the bungalow, to supply the deficiency. In my
perplexity I visited East Island, and here a possible way out of the
difficulty was suggested to me by the discovery--as I then for the first
time particularly noticed--that certain of the trees flourishing on that
island appeared to be if not actually cedars at least a species very
nearly akin thereto. And if upon closer investigation this should prove
to be the case, here was a supply of timber admirably suited to my
requirements and ample beyond my utmost needs. It was a matter worthy
of my most particular attention; and accordingly I selected a group of
the supposed cedars, and forthwith proceeded to operate upon them. They
were three in number, of just about the right size for my requirements,
and they were within a quarter of a mile of the cove. I began my
investigation by hacking off a good stout branch, stripping off its
bark, and testing its working qualities. I found that the wood gave off
the characteristic odour of cedar; that it was close-grained; that it
was easily workable; and that it was, in short, everything I could
possibly desire. I therefore started work in earnest by felling the
tree that I had already attacked and trimming off its branches. This
brought my day's work to a close, and I returned to Eden with a mind
relieved of a heavy load of anxiety, for there was now no longer any
need to contemplate the breaking up of either the boat or the bungalow.
True, I had found the wood I required; but what I needed was thin
planks, not heavy balks of timber such as one might be able to hew out
of a tree trunk with an axe; and how was I to obtain those planks? I
considered the matter and suddenly remembered that cedar splits easily;
I therefore determined to ascertain by actual experiment whether it
would be possible to procure the planks I required by splitting the
felled trunk. The experiment was on the whole successful; for although
I wasted more timber than I anticipated I nevertheless succeeded in
securing several very fine planks that, when operated upon with the
plane, could be reduced to the exact thickness required. Thus
encouraged, I made an estimate of the quantity of planking required to
complete the hull of the cutter, and then proceeded to fell as many
trees as were needed to furnish that quantity.
It was while I was thus engaged that I one day received an urgent visit
from Bowata and his son, who came in great distress to inform me that
the watchers posted at the western extremity of Cliff Island, to guard
against a surprise attack on the part of the apes believed to have
retreated to West Island, had that morning reported that the anthropoids
were recrossing the Middle Channel to Apes' Island; and that, from
observation of the creatures' movements, it was strongly suspected that
they meditated an attack in force upon Cliff Island and its inhabitants.
Bowata concluded his communication with an entreaty that I would lend
my aid to repel the threatened attack. I at once acceded to this
request, and, with the two natives aboard the sailing boat and their
punt in tow, proceeded to Eden, where I collected all the arms and
ammunition we possessed, and, taking Billy with me, made sail for Cliff
Island.
As we approached the northern extremity of Apes' Island, from which
point the brutes usually started on their swim across the channel to
Cliff Island, my telescope revealed numerous apes clustered together
upon the beach, while many others could be seen wending their way toward
the same spot; but I could see none in the water, so concluded that the
threatened raid had not yet started. I inquired of Bowata how many of
his people were now armed with bows and arrows, and was gratified to
learn that every male above the age of fifteen had been so armed. This
meant that there were more than a hundred archers to defend the island;
learning which I came to the conclusion that the best form of defence
was attack, and made my plans accordingly.
Landing Bowata and his son to conduct the defence of their island, I
took aboard the boat seven natives, who, the chief assured me, were
among his most expert bowmen, and headed across the channel toward Apes'
Island, my plan being to cruise to and fro opposite the spot where the
apes were mustering, and to pick off as many of the brutes as possible
while passing.
At this point the channel was only about a mile wide; ten minutes,
therefore, sufficed us to accomplish the passage and to round to at a
distance of twenty yards from the beach, where some fifty or sixty of
the gigantic brutes were now assembled, most of them squatting upon
their haunches, as though awaiting a signal of some sort, while others
were joining them at the rate of two or three per minute. As the boat
approached, the monsters eyed her malignantly, while several rose to
their feet as though preparing to repel an attack. This suited our
purpose well, and as the boat, under Billy's skilful handling, rounding
to into the wind, with her sails a-shiver, glided slowly past the spot
where the apes were congregated, we each deliberately selected our
target and, drawing our bows to the full length of our arrows, let fly
with deadly effect. Every arrow went home, many of them finding the
heart, and with screams of mingled pain and rage eight of the apes
crashed to the ground, a few of them writhing convulsively in their
death-agony but most of them dead. There was time for a second
discharge before the boat drifted too far away, and three more of the
brutes went down, while five of their comrades, screaming and bellowing
with pain and rage, wrenched the arrows from their wounds, some of them
in their blind fury turning upon and savagely attacking their fellows.
The manoeuvre was so successful that it was repeated with equally
satisfactory results.
Thus far the unwounded apes appeared to take little or no notice of the
havoc we were working among them; and I feel certain that none of them
connected that havoc with the appearance of the boat upon the scene; but
when the manoeuvre was repeated a third time, and still more of their
number fell dead or wounded, it seemed at last to dawn upon their
imperfect intelligence that the strange object with white sails, which
glided to and fro upon the water opposite them, must be somehow
associated with the casualties occurring among their companions, and
with yells of concentrated fury and eyes ablaze with deadly malice about
a dozen of them shambled down the beach into the water, and, striking
out, started to swim in pursuit of the boat.
Nothing could have better suited us than this senseless act of the great
anthropoids, for, although they swam fast, the boat could easily out-
distance them in the breeze then blowing, and I signed to Billy to edge
away toward a wider part of the channel, so that when they should
discover how impossible it was to overtake the boat they might have the
farther to swim, should any of them escape us and attempt to make their
way across to Cliff Island. But the precaution was unnecessary, for
when they were in the water and swimming we could do as we would with
them, and within a few minutes every ape that had started in pursuit of
the boat was slain.
By this time, however, others had also taken to the water, there being
now at least thirty of them swimming, some in pursuit of the boat while
others headed directly across the channel toward Cliff Island. This
necessitated an alteration of our plans, yet we still contrived to keep
the boat between the apes and the island, crossing and recrossing in
front of the brutes at a distance of five to ten yards, so that it was
impossible for us to miss them. Thus the slaughter went on until my
very soul revolted at such terrible destruction, for the brutes
continued to come on by dozens and scores until there seemed to be no
end of them. Most creatures would have had intelligence enough to
recognise eventually that their persistence meant death to them and
would have turned back, either discouraged or terrified, but the apes
seemed to be incapable of either emotion and pressed resolutely on, so
that their destruction became imperative if the natives of Cliff Island
were not to be abandoned to their tender mercies. But that sort of
thing could not go on for ever; the number of the brutes gradually
decreased, and at the end of about three hours the last ape in sight
succumbed to our attack, and it then appeared probable that we had
exterminated the entire tribe of the dangerous and formidable creatures.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
ATTACKED BY CHINESE PIRATES.
The destruction of the apes accomplished, I returned with avidity to the
task of felling the cedar trees on East Island and splitting the trunks
into planks for the completion of the cutter--for I had by this time
entirely abandoned the hope of rescue by a passing ship.
It was about three weeks later that, emerging on a certain morning from
my bedroom, and stepping out to the veranda to scan the offing,
according to custom, before beginning the regular routine of the day, my
gaze was instantly arrested by an object poised on the very verge of the
horizon, some twelve miles distant. Showing up almost black against the
vivid hues of the early morning eastern sky it was yet too small to be
capable of identification by the unassisted eye. I therefore darted
back into the house, and procuring the telescope brought it to bear upon
the stranger; and as I focused the image of that distant object in the
lenses of the instrument I experienced a moment of most bitter
disappointment. For when my gaze first fell upon that tiny speck the
thought instantly leapt to my mind that at long last the moment of our
deliverance had arrived; whereas a moment or two later my telescope
revealed to me the disconcerting fact that the craft in sight, and
heading straight for the group, was a Chinese junk!
It may be that certain of my readers will wonder why the approach of a
Chinese junk to the group should cause me such acute disappointment, and
they may perhaps ask the question: "Is not a Chinese junk as capable as
any other vessel of rescuing shipwrecked people and conveying them back
to civilisation?" To this question I would reply: "Yes, undoubtedly,
under certain circumstances." But let me explain the proviso implied in
that reply.
Had the boy Billy and I only been concerned I would have trusted
ourselves aboard the junk; but--there was the treasure to be considered,
and I was not altogether ignorant concerning the character and
reputation of Chinese sailors. There may be, and probably are, Chinamen
who are as honourable, upright, and honest as the average Englishman,
but my experience, such as it has been, is that they are not to be found
aboard a junk. The Chinese seaman is, as a rule, drawn from the lowest
stratum of his people, and among such men the moral sense, if not
absolutely lacking, is very nearly so. They are barbarian, and all
their instincts are primitive. Honour and honesty are words that have
no meaning for them; they are, before all things else, intensely
acquisitive, and if they want a thing they will take it if they can, and
woe betide the owner if he resists them. In a word, the Chinese seaman
is by instinct a pirate, and a cruel, bloodthirsty one at that; hence my
feeling of disappointment at the sight of that junk; for how could I
hope that our treasure would remain inviolate if placed in the power of
such men as I have endeavoured to describe? They would cut our throats
without scruple in order to possess themselves of the contents of our
chests, the very appearance of which was irresistibly suggestive of
treasure. It took me not a moment to determine that, rather than expose
ourselves to such possible risks, we would have nothing whatever to do
with the junk if we could avoid it.
But could we? The junk was heading straight for the group, running
before a light easterly breeze which would probably give her a speed of
about three knots, and in the course of the next three hours she would
be close enough to enable her crew to see the bungalow, the existence of
which it was impossible to conceal, built as it was high up on the hill-
side with a passage through the reef immediately opposite it. Was it at
all reasonable to suppose that _any_ craft would sail past the group
without calling to investigate? There was, of course, the possibility
that the junk in sight might be perfectly harmless, and that if she
entered the lagoon it would be merely to satisfy curiosity and perhaps
to obtain a little fruit or to replenish her stock of fresh water; and,
if so, well and good. But if not--if her crew happened to be composed
of such ruffians as I have endeavoured to picture, what then? Could I
hope that they would be satisfied merely to come up to the bungalow, ask
a few questions in pidgin English, and depart, leaving us unscathed? To
suppose any such thing would be--to say the least of it--foolishness.
The probability was that they would attack us, sack the place, carrying
away everything that took their fancy, including the treasure-chests,
murder Billy and me, and burn down the house out of sheer love of
destruction.
These reflections, which have taken me so long to record, flashed
through my mind upon the instant following my recognition of the
character of the stranger; and realisation of the danger that possibly
threatened us naturally led up to the question: How was that danger to
be averted? Could Billy and I alone hope to put up a successful defence
against an attack by perhaps thirty or forty determined men? For, let
Chinamen be what they may in other respects, they are not easily daunted
by a sense of personal danger, especially if animated by the hope of
plunder. Then in a moment there came to me the memory of Bowata and the
natives of Cliff Island. They had been most profuse in their
expressions of gratitude for the help which we had afforded them from
time to time, and had repeatedly declared their eagerness to find an
opportunity to give practical demonstration of that gratitude: here was
their opportunity; and all that was needed was to make them aware of it.
I took another long look at the junk, and came to the conclusion that
she could not reach the lagoon in much less than four hours, which would
allow me time to make a single trip in the boat to Cliff Island, get
into touch with Bowata, secure his assistance, and return to Eden with
my dusky reinforcements. I decided to do so, and, without waiting for
breakfast, at once started for the cove--and the boat.
The wind being fair, I made a quick run across to Cliff Island; and a
swift-footed native boy soon brought Bowata down to the landing-place
where we usually met. Explaining the circumstances to him, I found him,
as I had quite anticipated, more than ready to render me every possible
assistance; and, departing to muster his men, he returned in a very
short time with nineteen of his most reliable fighters--the boat's
utmost capacity was twenty, in addition to myself, and the chief
naturally elected to accompany and head his party. Those men, Bowata
assured me, were the pick of the entire tribe, and I quite believed him,
for, although small and slight compared with the average Englishman,
they were lithe, wiry, active, and resolute-looking men, with an eager
gleam in their eyes which seemed to suggest that the prospect of a fight
was the reverse of distasteful to them. They were each armed with a
bow, a quiver full of arrows, and a most formidable-looking war club,
the head of which was thickly studded with bone spikes, and which
promised to be terribly effective at close quarters--the latter being a
quite recent addition to their armoury invented by Bowata's son, whose
imagination had at last been stimulated by the persistent attacks of the
apes.
The return passage to Eden--half of which was a dead beat to windward,
with the boat loaded to her utmost capacity--occupied so long a time
that I was in a perfect fever of anxiety lest the junk should arrive
before us; but upon rounding the south-east point of Cliff Island I was
somewhat relieved to see that she had, so far, not entered the lagoon,
nor did I see any sign of her during the remainder of the passage; for,
low down in the water as we were, the spray of the surf breaking upon
the reef effectually veiled from our view everything outside.
There was still no sign of the junk when at length the boat entered the
little cove that was our usual landing-place, and grounded on the beach.
Ten minutes later we surmounted the crest of the ridge, on the far side
of which stood the bungalow, and I once more got a view of the open sea
outside, over the curtain of everlasting spray that had obstructed my
view from the boat. The junk was visible, clearly enough, hove-to at a
distance of about a mile to windward of the reef; and I hurried to the
house for the telescope, that I might obtain a nearer view of what was
happening aboard her. Seizing the telescope I proceeded to the veranda,
from which I brought the instrument to bear upon the craft.
I now saw that she had lowered a boat that, manned by a crew of five,
was heading for the opening in the reef immediately opposite our island.
This boat I watched, keeping the telescope bearing upon her as she
alternately topped and disappeared behind the long ridges of swell,
until at length she passed through the opening and entered the lagoon.
Once through the reef, she headed straight for Eden, and it looked as
though the men in her contemplated landing on the beach at the foot of
the slope upon which the bungalow was built; whereupon I thought it well
to hoist the brigantine's ensign upon the flagstaff I had set up in
front of the bungalow, as a hint to the intruders that the island was
British territory, and that its inhabitants expected that territory to
be respected.
The boat, approaching cautiously, at length reached a point about a
quarter of a mile from the beach, when the crew lay upon their oars,
while the man in the stern-sheets rose to his feet and proceeded to
subject Eden, and as much of the rest of the group as was visible from
his point of view, to a prolonged scrutiny, after which, at a sign from
him, the oars again dipped in the water and, turning, the boat recrossed
the lagoon and made her way back to the junk.
There was now a pause in the proceedings, during which, I conjectured,
the man who had been in charge of the boat was making his report to his
skipper. The pause, however, was not of long duration, for, as I
continued to watch, signs of a sudden stir aboard the junk became
perceptible, and a few minutes later I saw that her crew were lowering
two more boats, much larger than the first, and that a considerable
number of men--who, so far as it was possible to see at that distance,
were all armed--were swarming down the junk's side into them. This
seemed to indicate that my worst suspicions regarding the character of
the vessel were only too well founded, and that a pretty stiff fight was
in prospect for us. If this should be so it was time to see about
making my dispositions for the conflict; I accordingly re-entered the
house and, girding on my cutlass, thrust a brace of fully loaded
revolvers into my belt, seized my own pet rifle and, filling my jacket
pockets with cartridges, sallied forth and, joining Bowata and his
party, led them down to the beach.
This particular strip of beach, it should be explained, was quite unlike
the other beaches of the group. The latter, composed of white coral
sand, were continuous, smooth, unencumbered, averaged from thirty feet
wide in some cases to as much as a hundred feet wide in others, and
usually sloped steeply enough to enable our boat, with good way on her,
to run herself high enough on them to permit us to land dry-footed. On
the other hand, the beach toward which we were now heading was a strip
of coral sand not more than a quarter of a mile long, perfectly smooth,
but sloping so very gently that I much doubted whether the boats I had
seen preparing to leave the junk could approach within fifty yards of
the shore without grounding. But the circumstance most greatly in our
favour was that this comparatively short length of beach, while inviting
enough in appearance as a landing-place, was backed, on its shore side,
by an outcrop of black rocks that offered splendid cover for a defending
force while leaving attackers from the sea completely exposed. These
peculiarities of the shore rendered it morally certain that the beach
itself would be the actual battle-ground in the coming conflict; and it
was with the view to its decision there that I made my final
arrangements, and posted Bowata and his men. Having done this to my
satisfaction I took my rifle and advanced to the open beach, where I
seated myself upon a detached fragment of rock, and patiently awaited
developments.
These proved to be somewhat slow in arriving; and the period of waiting
was rendered all the more tedious from the fact that, low down on the
beach as I now was, the continuous veil of spray flying over the reef
effectually hid everything that might be happening to seaward; but at
length, after waiting for fully an hour for something to happen, one of
the Chinese boats appeared in the gap in the reef, closely followed by a
second and a third. The two leading boats were largish craft, pulling
eight oars each, and they appeared to be carrying some fourteen or
sixteen men each, while the third was the much smaller craft that had
already once entered the lagoon, the crew of which seemed now to be
augmented by three or four extra men. Once clear of the passage, they
formed in line abreast, the smaller boat between the two big ones, while
one man, doubtless the leader of the expedition, stood in the stern-
sheets, directing the movements of his little flotilla from time to time
by a wave of his hand.
The distance across the lagoon at this point, from the reef to the beach
of Eden, was about a mile; the boats were therefore not long in
traversing the distance. But I did not intend to allow our unwelcome
visitors to land without a protest of some sort, and at the same time
giving them something in the nature of a warning. I therefore waited
until the boats had arrived within about two hundred yards of the beach,
when, rising to my feet, I discharged my rifle, aiming to send the shot
a few yards above the head of the leader, who was still standing in the
stern-sheets of the smaller boat.
As though my rifle-shot had been a signal, the oarsmen of all three of
the boats instantly ceased rowing, and a tremendous jabbering arose
among them, which the leader silenced by raising his hand, at the same
time shouting what I took to be a sharp command. The oarsmen dipped
their starboard oars, sweeping the three boats broadside-on to the
beach, and the next moment I was saluted by a shower of bullets and
slugs from some twenty jingals. For an instant the air all about me
seemed to be full of lead, but I was untouched; and, knowing that it
would take them a minute or two to reload, I wheeled about and, crossing
some half-dozen yards of open ground, took cover behind a convenient
rock.
As I did so the boats again wheeled into line abreast and, with their
crews excitedly jabbering and shouting to each other, dashed toward the
beach at full speed, the leader drawing a most formidable-looking sword
and waving it above his head, with shouts of encouragement to his men.
But, as I had foreseen, the boats advanced but a few lengths farther
when the two bigger ones stopped dead, having grounded, and several of
their occupants, unprepared for the sudden stoppage, toppled over
backward, causing great confusion among their comrades. At this moment
I whistled shrilly, whereupon Bowata and his merry men arose from behind
their ambush among the rocks and, taking deliberate aim, poured into the
boats a flight of arrows, every one of which must have told, so short
was the range, and so great was the confusion that ensued among the
Chinese. Meanwhile, the smaller boat, being of lighter draught,
continued to come stem-on for the beach. I was covering her, with my
rifle nicely resting in a notch of the rock in front of me, and as she
came fair end-on I pressed the trigger, and the two foremost oarsmen
collapsed on their oars, both of them evidently shot by the one bullet.
This naturally added to the confusion; but the leader, who appeared to
exercise great influence over his men, soon restored order and, shouting
a command to his followers, caused those in the grounded boats to leap
overboard, where, with the water nearly up to their waists, they paused
for a moment to discharge a second volley from their jingals; then,
tossing their cumbersome firearms back into the boats, they uttered a
yell, drew their swords, and came charging helter-skelter through the
water toward the beach.
This was the opportunity for Bowata and his party, who, with arrows
ready fitted to their bow-strings, again rose from behind the covering
rocks and let fly at the enemy. Some of the arrows missed their mark,
but about three-quarters of them were effective--one man, I observed,
receiving no less than three shafts in his body--and five of the enemy
fell, while others came staggering forward with arrows sunk deep in
various parts of their anatomy. The leader of the band, however,
remained unhurt, and he continued, by shouts, to urge his men forward to
the attack. It was evident that his followers derived great
encouragement from his words and actions, and that to put him _hors de
combat_ would practically be to win the battle; therefore, leaving my
now empty rifle leaning against the rock behind which I had been
crouching, I drew my cutlass and advanced to meet the fellow, determined
to personally tackle him and put him out of action without loss of time.
He was a sufficiently formidable antagonist, it must be admitted; two
inches taller than myself, broad in proportion, with an enormously
massive chest and shoulders, and great muscles that stood out like
cables under the skin of his bare arms. His features were typically
Tartar, and his small eyes blazed with ferocity as, waving his sword
above his head, he advanced with a shout of defiance to meet me.
Meanwhile Bowata and his followers poured in still another flight of
arrows, and then, flinging down their bows, they gripped their
formidable war clubs and, uttering weird yells, charged across the sand
and fell upon the Chinamen as they emerged from the water.
I quite anticipated that the fight between the leader and myself would
be a long and exceedingly tough one; but, to my amazement, it was begun
and finished in a breath. The man came charging upon me with uplifted
sword, his evident intention being to make a cut at my head that should
finish me out of hand. And indeed he very nearly accomplished his
purpose; for as I raised my cutlass to guard my head his blade descended
upon it with terrific force--and shore my weapon clean in two, and if I
had not at the same moment stepped nimbly aside I should assuredly have
been cloven to the eyes. As it was, the descending weapon missed me by
a hair-breadth, shearing a large hole in the sleeve of my shirt but not
touching the skin. Scarcely realising what I was about, but acting upon
instinct or the impulse of the moment, I suppose, before my antagonist
could again raise his weapon I violently thrust my severed blade into
his face, and as he staggered back with the force of the blow I whipped
out my revolver and shot him through the head. That ended the fight;
for as the man fell dead at my feet a shout of mingled horror and
consternation arose from those Chinese who happened to witness the
incident, and who thereupon incontinently turned and fled to their
boats, an example immediately followed by their comrades, hotly pursued
by the blacks, who plied their war clubs with terrible effect.
It was a disastrous adventure for the Chinamen; for of the total number
engaged--which I estimated to be between thirty and forty--only eleven
escaped, for I counted them. On the other hand, the casualties on our
side were remarkably small, numbering only seven wounded, the wounds
consisting entirely of sword cuts, none of which was serious. Of those
seven Bowata happened to be one, his wound consisting of a sword thrust
through the upper part of the left arm. I therefore took him and his
six companions in misfortune up to the house to dress their wounds,
leaving the remainder of the party on the beach to collect the weapons
and their spent arrows, and to clear up generally.
My surgical duties occupied about an hour and a half; and when all my
patients had been attended to I sent them with Billy down to the cove,
to be ferried across in the sailing boat to Cliff Island, where no doubt
their own people would look after them. Then, remembering that there
were wounded Chinamen among those abandoned upon the beach, I started
down to see what could be done for them; for although a party of wounded
and no doubt treacherous and vindictive Chinks would be a most
embarrassing charge to have on my hands, common humanity demanded that
they should not be left to perish miserably where they had fallen.
Before, however, I had covered half the distance between the bungalow
and the beach I met the remaining blacks marching triumphantly up the
hill, singing a song of victory, and carrying not only their own
recovered weapons but also several swords that they had taken from the
fallen enemy. They also brought the rifle that I had left on the beach,
and the sword, scabbard, and belt of the Chinese leader, which they
solemnly handed over to me as the victor. Seeing that they had
evidently been busy among the fallen I asked whether there were many
wounded among the latter, to which the man whom I was questioning
replied: No, they were all dead! pointing significantly to his blood-
smeared war club by way of explanation.
Well, it may perhaps seem inhuman to say it, but I was not altogether
sorry. The men were undoubtedly pirates, if not by profession, pirates
at least when opportunity seemed to be favourable. They had attacked me
deliberately and without provocation, and, but for the help of the
blacks, Billy and I would unquestionably have been "wiped out". Ten or
a dozen of such men, wounded, would have been a terribly embarrassing
charge for me to have assumed; and it would have been still more
embarrassing to have had them about the place when they were again hale
and strong. No; taking everything into consideration I was not
altogether sorry that they had been put beyond the possibility of
perpetrating further mischief.
Meanwhile, what had become of the junk? I had looked for her just
before leaving the bungalow on my way back to the beach, and had sighted
her, some six miles off, in the south-eastern quarter, heading to the
southward, close-hauled, by which I judged that no further trouble need
be looked for from her.
But there were the dead on the beach to be disposed of, without loss of
time. How could this disposal be best effected? I considered the
matter, and presently hit upon a plan. The Chinese, in their
precipitate flight, had abandoned two of their boats, namely the small
one and one of the bigger ones. Those two would be sufficient to
contain the whole of the dead; and, having now decided upon my mode of
procedure, I led my little band of black warriors back to the beach and,
with their assistance, transferred the dead Chinamen to the two
abandoned boats. We had barely completed this gruesome task when Billy
returned with the sailing boat, whereupon I boarded her, sailed her
round from the cove to the east beach, took the Chinese boats in tow,
and anchored them for the night under the lee of the northern extremity
of Eden. The next day I again took the boats in tow and, with a party
of eight natives to help me, towed them to the beach of North Island,
where we buried the dead Chinamen. The smaller of the two boats I then
presented to Bowata, in recognition of the assistance he had rendered me
in repelling the attack by the Chinese, while the bigger one I kept, for
the sake of her materials, which would be valuable to me in the
completion of the cutter. It was while clearing up and putting matters
generally straight after the Chinamen's unwelcome visit that the sword
of the leader again came under my notice and, impelled by curiosity, I
drew the weapon from its sheath and subjected it to a somewhat critical
examination; for if that should prove satisfactory I intended to make
use of it in future in place of the cutlass, the blade of which it had
shorn through with such perfect ease. I found it to be somewhat heavier
than the cutlass, the blade being considerably thicker than that of the
other weapon, though not quite so wide; it was, however, perfectly
balanced and I was able to wield it with the utmost ease, while it was
literally as keen-edged as a razor; and so exquisite was its temper that
there was no sign of a notch or indentation of any description on its
edge along its entire length, from point to hilt. I returned it to its
sheath with much satisfaction, feeling that I had effected a most
profitable exchange.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
A SURPRISING REAPPEARANCE.
It was about three weeks later that, as Billy and I foregathered in the
living-room of the bungalow, early on a certain morning, discussing our
biscuit and early cup of coffee prior to setting out for the matutinal
bath that always preceded the work of the day, Billy asked:
"By the way, Mr Blackburn, did Kit disturb you at all last night? He
was so uneasy that I had to turn out twice and go to him, and both times
I found him standing at the top of the veranda steps, straining at his
leash," (latterly we always tied him up at night) "switching his tail
fiercely, and uttering half-suppressed growls, as though he scented or
heard something unusual prowling near the house. It was only by staying
with him for about half an hour that I at last succeeded in quieting him
down. You see, I was afraid he would awake you, and I knew how
frightfully tired you must be after your long day's work at the cutter,
under the broiling sun. I hope no apes or other unpleasant creatures
have found their way to Eden, and are lurking to frighten the life out
of me."
"I think you need not greatly fear," said I. "All the same, there was
probably a cause for Kit's uneasiness--which, by the way, did not in the
least disturb me, for I never heard him--and we may as well try to
discover what it was; therefore after breakfast I will take the rifle
and give a look round."
It was, however, unnecessary to wait until after breakfast for the
elucidation of the mystery, for when Billy and I reached the beach upon
which stood the nearly complete hull of the cutter, two ragged, unkempt,
sunburnt scarecrows emerged from the shadow of the craft and approached
me.
"Mornin', Mister," remarked the taller of the pair, in a would-be hearty
tone of voice that nevertheless somehow suggested cringing, as did his
manner. "Well, here we are again, turned up like bad pennies; just in
time, by the looks of it, to help ye finish this dandy yacht and sail
her to--wherever you thinks of goin'."
"What!" I exclaimed, in inexpressible amazement, "can it be possible
that you are Svorenssen and--and Van Ryn? Why, I believed that you and
all the rest of the crew of the _Yorkshire Lass_ were drowned when she
was wrecked, more than a year ago."
"So we was, Mister--very nigh," replied Svorenssen. "There was only
three of us--besides you and Billy--that escaped; and that was me, Dirk
here, and a chap named Flemin'--Pete, we used to call 'im. When the
ship struck we was all washed overboard by the first sea as broke
aboard; and nat'rally those of us as could swim struck out as soon as
our heads rose above water. And--but, I say, Mister, ain't there no
breakfast knockin' about? We haven't ate nothin' since yesterday
a'ternoon, and we're feelin' pretty sharp set, I can tell ye."
"Breakfast!" I reiterated. "Why, of course. It will be ready in about
an hour's time. But you cannot come up to the house as you are, you
know--by the way, were you by any chance prowling about in the
neighbourhood of the house last night?"
"Ay, we was," answered Svorenssen. "We landed on the beach below it,
and made it out at once in the moonlight. We guessed as it was yours;
and we was for rousin' you out to give us a bite o' supper; but that dog
o' yours growled so vicious, and seemed so savage, that we decided to
wait till this mornin'."
"It was extremely fortunate for you that you did," said I. "The `dog',
as you call him, happens to be a _leopard_; and if you had persisted in
your attempt to approach the house, the pair of you would assuredly have
been killed. I tell you this at once, by way of warning."
"The beast will 'ave to be shained oop; else how are we to go in an' out
of der 'ouse?" demanded Van Ryn.
"You will _not_ go in and out of the house," I retorted. "There is no
room for you there. Then, just look at yourselves. You are as indecent
in the matter of your clothing as you are filthy in your persons.
Before anything else you will have to cleanse yourselves, and be clothed
decently. The condition of your clothes you cannot help, I suppose,
being castaways for more than a year; but you might at least have kept
your bodies clean. You are disgustingly verminous, both of you; and
after you have had a meal your first business must be to get yourselves
clean. You will remain here while Billy and I go up to the house and
bring you down some breakfast; after which I must see what can be done
to make you reasonably presentable."
"All right. Mister," answered Svorenssen, "we'll keep clear of the
'ouse, never fear. We don't want to be tore to pieces by no leopards,
after tryin' our utmost for over a year to get to ye and lend a hand in
whatever you might be doin' to get away from this ruddy hole. We're
just as anxious as you can be to get away from it, you may bet on that."
"Well," said I to Billy, as we turned away to retrace our steps to the
house, our bath completely forgotten, "this reappearance of Svorenssen
and Van Ryn is a surprise, and not altogether an agreeable one at that.
I never particularly liked either of them; they impressed me from the
very beginning as being insubordinate of disposition and impatient of
discipline; and I have not forgotten the character that the boatswain
and Chips gave them. How did they behave before I joined the _Yorkshire
Lass_, Billy? Had your father ever any trouble with them?"
"Yes, in some ways a good deal," answered Billy. "What the boatswain
and Chips said about them was quite true. They and the other two
foreigners were always quarrelling with the rest of the forecastle
hands; they wanted to do only just what work suited them, and not what
Father wanted them to do; and from what the other men said I believe
that the Dagoes would have mutinied if it had not been for the chance of
getting hold of and sharing the treasure."
Returning to the house, Billy and I snatched a hasty meal, and then we
started back for the beach, bearing with us food, two suits of the
lightest clothing the slop-chest afforded, two blue-striped shirts, two
cloth caps, soap, towels, a comb, and a pair of scissors. The two
seamen were too hungry to talk much while discussing their meal, nor did
I attempt to question them just then, curbing my curiosity until a more
favourable opportunity to satisfy it should present itself; and when the
pair had finished eating I marched them off to the river where, handing
them the soap and towels, I bade them strip, enter the water, and
thoroughly cleanse themselves from the accumulated grime of a year's
neglect. This at length done, I set them to cut each other's hair and
beard and generally render themselves as decent looking and respectable
as was possible; after which I handed them their new clothes and bade
them burn their old rags. They seemed to consider me quite unreasonably
particular, and grumbled a good deal at what they appeared to regard as
the wholly unnecessary trouble I was imposing upon them; but I would
take no denial; and when at length they realised that I intended to have
my way they surlily submitted. In the end I believe that, in despite of
themselves, they were rather glad that I had been so insistent; for when
they once more stood fully clothed their appearance was improved almost
beyond recognition, and they seemed quite pleased with themselves.
They were by no means so pleased, however, when, in response to a remark
by one of them, I gave them to clearly understand that I would not house
them in the bungalow, and that during the comparatively short period of
our further stay on the group they would have to be content with such
accommodation as a tent would afford. They argued hotly that, being
castaways and survivors from the same shipwreck, we all stood upon a
perfectly equal footing and were alike entitled to share equally in
everything. To which I replied that the bungalow, the sailing boat, and
the cutter were all mine, built with my own hands out of material salved
by me from the wreck; that they had not participated or helped in the
slightest degree in any of the salving or building operations.
Therefore I considered they were not entitled to claim any share in the
comforts or advantages arising from those operations; but that, as an
act of grace, I was prepared to allow them a reasonable share of those
comforts and advantages; while, if they would help me to complete the
cutter, make her ready for sea, and assist me on the voyage, they should
be welcome to a passage in her. For a heated five minutes I believed I
was in for very serious trouble with the two men; but in the midst of
the argument--which was chiefly between Van Ryn and myself--Svorenssen
intervened, drawing his companion away and saying a few hasty words that
seemed to have the effect of wonderfully calming the Dutchman's
excitement; and the dispute ended by their admitting--rather lamely I
thought--that since I was evidently master of the situation, they
supposed they must make the best of it and accept what I chose to give
them. As to helping with the completion of the cutter, they expressed
themselves as only too willing to do so, since they had had more than
enough of "Robinson Crusoeing" it.
"Now," said I to them as, their toilet at length completed, we moved
away from the stream, "I must again warn you both to keep well clear of
the house. I have already told you that the animal which you last night
mistook for a dog is a leopard. Now that you have arrived on the island
I shall be obliged to keep him tied up; but if you approach the house it
will be at your peril; for if Kit sees or scents either of you he will
probably break adrift, and you will simply be torn limb from limb. He
is a most ferocious creature, and will not tolerate strangers; so bear
in mind what I say and give him a wide berth."
"Bud I vants to see the house," protested Van Ryn. "How am I to do
that?"
"You will have to forgo that pleasure, so that's all there is about it,"
I replied dryly.
"If the brute interveres mit me, I vill kill 'im," threatened the
Dutchman.
"Will you?" said I. "Why, man, you would stand no more chance with that
leopard than if you were the merest baby. But--enough of this. You had
better pitch your tent on the beach, close to the cutter. Go down there
now and choose a spot to suit yourselves, and Billy and I will come down
later on with a sail, pole, and what other gear is necessary, and help
you to rig it up."
By mid-afternoon the tent--consisting of the brigantine's fore-course,
which I had salved--was satisfactorily rigged up, a trench dug round it
to carry off water in the event of rain, and a sufficiency of rude but
efficient furniture stored within it; and, somewhat to my surprise, the
pair who were to occupy it expressed themselves as quite satisfied.
Then, since it was too late in the day to do much work upon the cutter,
I invited the seamen to give me a detailed account of how they had fared
since the wreck. It was Svorenssen who undertook to tell the story, and
he told it in the coarse, uncouth language of the forecastle,
embellishing and emphasising it here and there, after the manner of the
shellback, by the introduction of words and phrases comprehensible
enough to me but confusing and quite unintelligible to a landsman. I
shall therefore take the liberty of translating the narrative into
plain, simple English for the benefit of my readers. Thus translated,
it ran as follows:
"It must have been about half an hour after Chips came for'ard with the
news that you had met with an accident, and had been carried down into
your cabin, and the gale was still blowing as heavy as ever, when some
of us on the forecastle thought we heard another sound above the shriek
of the wind and the hiss of the sea; and, looking ahead, we presently
saw, stretching away on both bows, as far as we could see, an unbroken
line of wildly leaping breakers and flying spray. We at once hailed the
quarterdeck, shouting: `Breakers ahead and on both bows!' but it is
exceedingly doubtful whether or not we were heard, and if we had been,
it would have made no difference, for before anything could be done the
ship was among the breakers, and a second later she struck, not very
hard, but just sufficiently so to cant us broadside-on. Then she struck
again, and hung until a tremendous sea broke aboard, sweeping her decks
and doubtless washing all hands on deck overboard--at all events that
sea took me and swept me helplessly over the bows, as also Van Ryn and
another man, named Fleming. But I knew nothing about them until the
next morning.
"Being a swimmer, I instinctively struck out, and I had not made more
than a dozen strokes before my hands struck something that I at once
seized and clung to. It proved to be a bit of topgallant bulwark, about
six feet long, and it afforded me a most welcome support, especially as
the seas were still breaking over me so furiously that it was only with
the utmost difficulty I contrived to snatch a breath between whiles.
But the breaking seas that came near to smothering me were also sweeping
me away fast to leeward, and after a time I found myself in smoother
water, the seas no longer broke over me, and, the water being quite
warm, I experienced no discomfort, apart from the uncertainty as to what
was to eventually happen to me, and I just kept paddling along to
leeward, following the run of the seas.
"I might have been overboard about half an hour when, clearing the salt
water out of my eyes, I caught the loom of land ahead, through the
darkness, the sight of which greatly cheered me, for I had no doubt of
my ability to hold out until I could reach the shore, and I had the
comforting conviction that where there was land there was also safety.
About an hour later I found myself again among breakers; but they were a
mere trifle compared with those that I had already encountered, and
shortly afterward my feet touched bottom and, abandoning the fragment of
wreckage to which I had been clinging, I crawled up the beach to above
high-water mark, flung myself down upon the warm sand, and instantly
fell asleep.
"When I awoke the sun was shining brilliantly, and the gale had broken,
although it was still blowing a strong breeze. I looked out to seaward,
and at once sighted the wreck, about two miles away, dismasted, and hard
and fast upon the reef. Then, glancing at my surroundings, I perceived
that I had landed upon a beach of fine white sand, backed by country
densely wooded, with hills stretching away to north and south. The
sight of the trees suggested possibilities of fruit, the thought of
which reminded me that I was hungry; and I was about to make a plunge
into the woods in search of something to eat when I heard a voice
hailing, and, looking in the direction from which the hail had come, I
saw, to my great satisfaction, Van Ryn and Fleming, about a quarter of a
mile along the beach.
"Naturally we at once joined forces, and, they being like myself,
hungry, we forthwith proceeded to hunt for food, speedily finding an
abundance of cocoa-nuts that had fallen, ripe, from the trees that lined
the inner edge of the beach. We ate and drank our fill of the fruit and
milk of the nuts, and then, having meanwhile discussed our plans for the
future, we began our quest for a practicable path inland, for the idea
of camping on the beach, night after night, had few attractions for us.
But the undergrowth was so dense and impenetrable that it was not until
we had traversed quite a mile of the beach, under the rays of a
scorching sun, that we at length found a spot where, by cutting and
hacking the monkey-rope and creepers with our knives, we finally
succeeded in working our way into a valley enclosed between two ranges
of hills running practically parallel.
"My word! that was hot work, I assure you, Mr Blackburn. Of course
there was no lack of shade, but, on the other hand, there was no air.
The atmosphere was simply stifling, and what with that and the labour of
hewing a way through the dense undergrowth--much of it consisting of
bushes covered with tough, sharp thorns that got hold of our clothes,
and not infrequently our skins, and refused to let go--the perspiration
poured from us like water, and simply drenched our clothes. But the
monkey-rope, the creepers, the thorns, and the heat were not the worst
of our troubles; the whole place was swarming with mosquitoes that
hovered about us in clouds and bit us savagely in a hundred places at
once. And, as though these were not enough, there were myriads of small
black ants that penetrated our clothing and bit us even more savagely
than the mosquitoes. Luckily we did not encounter the ants until we
were very nearly through the belt of bush, or we should have been
compelled to abandon our attempt.
"Ultimately, however, we effected the passage of the bush, and found
ourselves fairly in the valley, with long dry grass, waist-high, plenty
of trees, big and little, but not much bush or creeper. And then we
encountered potential trouble of a fresh kind, for although we were no
longer attacked by ants, we too frequently heard rustlings in the long
grass that we presently discovered to be caused by snakes, and we were
compelled to walk very warily, lest we should perchance unwittingly
tread upon one of the creatures, and be bitten, perhaps fatally, as a
punishment. I confess that--well, to put it plainly, I did not half
like it; but what were we to do? We were searching for a cave, or
shelter of some sort, that would serve us for a lodging and a place of
protection in the event of a recurrence of bad weather, and we were not
likely to find it by standing still. Also we were looking for food,
with a view to the future; but the question of supplies afforded us
little anxiety, for banana and plantain trees were abundant in that
valley, to say nothing of grapes and several other kinds of fruit.
Coming to a banana tree, the fruit of which was fully ripe, we made a
good meal, and then, feeling rather tired, we trampled down a smooth
place in the grass, under the shade of a big tree, stretched ourselves
thereon, and were soon fast asleep.
"Judging from the position of the sun in the heavens, it might be about
five o'clock in the afternoon when I was awakened by somebody shaking me
by the shoulder, and as I opened my eyes I heard a voice I at once
recognised as that belonging to Dirk here, who was saying, in a sort of
whisper:--
"`Hush! don't make a noise, but just lift your head, cautious, and
look.'
"`Look where?' I returned, also in a sort of whisper; `and what am I to
hush for?'
"`Look to your right, at Pete,'--which is the name by which we usually
addressed Fleming--`lying fast asleep there, and see what you'll see,'
replied Dirk.
"I turned my head very cautiously and looked; and there, within less
than a fathom of me, was Pete Fleming, lying flat on his back, fast
asleep, with a snake coiled up like a cable right in the middle of his
chest. The snake's head was resting upon the top flake of his coils,
with his cold, cruel eyes gazing straight at us, and his long, black,
forked tongue flickering in and out of his mouth in a most suggestively
threatening manner.
"`What's the best thing to do?' murmured Dirk in low tones. `We must do
something quickly, for if Pete awakes and stirs as much as an eyelid the
beggar will bite him, and then it will be all up with poor Pete.'
"There was a small branch, with a few twigs and a bunch of leaves on the
end of it, lying on the ground within reach of my right hand. I
contrived to get hold of this without disturbing the snake; then,
sitting up suddenly, I thrust the bunch of leaves on the end of the
branch straight and hard at the reptile, and--it vanished! That is the
only way in which I can convey any idea of the rapidity with which it
retreated. The next instant Pete was sitting up, rubbing the sleep out
of his eyes, and demanding with many choice forecastle embellishments
what I meant by my fool tricks. When we explained to him the danger
that he had so narrowly escaped, he had the grace to thank me for my
intervention; but we all agreed that the spot had no longer any charm
for us, and that it was high time for us to resume our search for a
place where we might pass the night in safety.
"Such a place was by no means easy to find, but ultimately, within a few
minutes of sunset, we came upon a sort of shelter among some rocks, of
which we at once took possession--for our need was by this time urgent,
total darkness being due in about ten minutes. Pete was strongly of
opinion that, wherever our shelter might be, we ought to light a fire in
front of it to scare away wild beasts, and, possessing a burning-glass,
he took the precaution to make fire with it before the sun sank too low,
and to kindle a torch with it for the purpose of lighting our fire. So,
having at length found our shelter, we forthwith proceeded to gather
materials, light our protective fire, and dispose of ourselves for the
night.
"Having found a refuge of sorts, we anticipated a good night's rest; but
no sooner had darkness closed down upon us than from all quarters there
arose a chorus of the most terrifying sounds--roars, barks, bellowings,
savage growls, grunts, shrieks--never in my life before had I heard
anything like the pandemonium that raged around us! We heard the
branches of trees being broken; great stones came rattling and crashing
down the steep hill-side behind us, missing our shelter by only what
seemed a series of miracles. There were heavy thuds, accompanied by
blood-curdling snarls that suggested the progress of life-and-death
fights between ferocious beasts; and at frequent intervals we caught,
through the smoke of our fire, glimpses of great eyes glaring at us!
Such was our first experience of night life in the wild.
"At length, however, toward morning the racket gradually quieted down,
and we snatched a short spell of sleep until sunrise, when we turned out
and proceeded to hunt for breakfast. Luck was with us that morning, for
we had not gone far when we found the partly eaten carcass of a fine fat
deer. The creature had not been dead very long, for the blood about it
was scarcely dry, and the meat was quite fresh. We were hungry and not
too squeamish, so we got to work upon that deer and cut some fine steaks
off a part of him that had not been touched by the thing that had killed
him, and, carrying the meat back to our shelter, we made up the fire and
cooked ourselves a fine breakfast, finishing off with fruit as a
substitute for the water that we failed to find.
"While partaking of breakfast we discussed our future as castaways.
With our experiences of the past night fresh in his mind Fleming
proposed a return to the beach and the construction of a raft, upon
which, he suggested, we should paddle off to the wreck, with the view of
giving her an overhaul, in the hope of finding something that would
repay us for our trouble; but when it came to consideration of details,
Dirk and I came to the conclusion that, with nothing but our sheath-
knives to serve as tools, the scheme was impracticable. What we might
have attempted had we known that you and Billy were alive and still
aboard is, perhaps, another matter. Several other schemes of an equally
impracticable character were suggested, only to be abandoned after
discussion, until finally, failing any more satisfactory plan, we
decided that if we could find a nice, comfortable cave to serve as a
dwelling we would experiment a bit upon `Robinson Crusoe' lines, and see
how we liked it.
"We found several caves of one sort and another that day; but the most
suitable of them were already tenanted, as we could tell immediately
that we put our noses inside them. Moreover, many of the tenants
happened to be at home when we called, and seemed to resent our presence
upon their doorsteps. Therefore, to avoid unpleasantness, we retired,
in many cases rather precipitately. Ultimately, however, we came upon a
cave that for some inexplicable reason was untenanted, and seemed to be
everything that could reasonably be desired. It was situated high up on
the side of the hill, and the entrance was so small that we were obliged
to bend almost double in order to pass through. But once past the
entrance the cave widened out until its interior was as spacious as that
of half a dozen forecastles knocked into one, with head-room of ten or
twelve feet. It had a beautiful dry, soft, sandy floor, and--best of
all--there was a pool of deliciously cool, sweet water at the far end of
it--the first fresh water that we had found. And the air was as clean
and sweet as the water; no Zoological Gardens odour, or taint of rotting
bones, you understand. We took possession at once.
"Vividly remembering our experiences of the night before, our first
business was to go out again and collect enough dry stuff to make a fire
at the entrance to last all night. We next cut a sufficient quantity of
the long, dry grass to provide each of us with a comfortable bed, and we
completed our arrangements by cutting and conveying to the cave a bunch
of bananas big enough to furnish us with a supper that night and
breakfast the next morning. Then, having supped, we built and lighted
our fire, turned in, and slept soundly all night, notwithstanding that
even in our sleep we were conscious of a repetition of all the weird
sounds of the previous night.
"I suppose you will scarcely be anxious to hear the full details of
every adventure that befell us during our sojourn in that valley; and
indeed, if you did, I am afraid I could not relate them with much
pretence to accuracy. Adventures enough and to spare there were, of one
sort and another, but I seem to have got them all mixed up together, so
that I am unable to say just exactly when any one in particular
happened. The wild beasts did not very seriously trouble or interfere
with us during the day-time. But the snakes more than compensated for
this; they constituted a perfect terror! We grew so fearful of them at
last, especially after our boots gave out, that we scarcely dared to put
one foot before the other; indeed it was a snake that finally drove us
out of the valley."
CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
SVORENSSEN RELATES AN INTERESTING STORY.
"It was while we were seeking fruit that the thing happened. We had
crossed the valley, and plunged into the forest on the other side, Dirk
and I being together while Pete was a few yards away, when suddenly, as
we were passing under the boughs of a big tree, I heard a kind of
_plop_, and at the same instant Dirk gave a yell that very nearly scared
me stiff. Glancing round to ascertain the cause of the disturbance, I
was horrified to see Dirk enveloped in the coils of an enormous snake,
whose ugly head was poised within a few inches of my shipmate's face,
the creature's forked tongue flickering in and out of its widely opened
jaws. I suppose I shall never be able to explain or account for the
impulse that actuated me at this horrid sight, but the fact remains
that, without pausing an instant to reflect, I thrust forward my left
hand and gripped the snake just behind the head, while with my right I
drew my sheath knife across the reptile's throat, pretty nearly severing
the head from the body at one stroke. Instantly it became a case of
`stand clear!' The snake uncoiled itself from about Dirk's body, and
proceeded to fling itself about on the ground with such terrific
violence that the air round about us was presently full of bits of
grass, broken twigs, and flying leaves, while Dirk, yelling like a
madman, flung himself upon the writhing body of the reptile, stabbing
furiously here and there with his knife--but never touching the snake so
far as I could see, while Pete came running up to ascertain what was the
matter.
"We got Dirk away from the snake eventually, and helped him back to the
cave; and when we got him there we stripped him, to learn the extent of
his injuries. To our great relief, we found that there was very little
the matter with him; he was much bruised about the body, from his waist
to his shoulders, but that was all. It was, however, enough. We agreed
that `Robinson Crusoeing' was not quite all that in our boyhood's days
we had believed it to be, and we resolved to return to the beach on the
following morning and endeavour to swim off to the wreck.
"When we started to work our way back to the beach we discovered, to our
annoyance, that the path which we had cut for ourselves through the
scrub had become completely overgrown again, consequently we had all our
former work to do over again, with the ants and mosquitoes even more
pertinacious in their attentions than before; thus the afternoon was
well advanced when at length we once more caught a glimpse of blue
water. By that time we were so utterly fagged that we felt it would be
folly to attempt a long swim under such conditions; we therefore
postponed our attempt until the next day. We saw that the wreck was
still on the reef, apparently in no worse condition than when we had
last viewed her; and, with our experiences of life ashore still fresh in
our memories, we told each other what fools we had been in making no
attempt to get off to her again as soon as the weather had settled after
our first landing.
"Pete Fleming was far and away the keenest of our little party to get
aboard again. He directed us to observe how high she was standing out
of the water, and expressed the opinion that for that reason it might be
possible for us to penetrate to her lazarette, where we should doubtless
find a quantity of tinned stuff that would be infinitely more palatable
than the fruit diet upon which we had so long been subsisting, and of
which we were all now thoroughly tired; and he was particularly eloquent
upon the subject of drink, of which he seemed confident that we should
find a considerable quantity. So keen, indeed, was he, that he was
stripped and in the water four or five minutes before Dirk or myself,
and was already swimming when we two started to wade in. And then a
dreadful thing happened. We were little more than ankle-deep when we
heard him utter an awful shriek, and saw him throw up his hands and
disappear in the midst of a violent swirl of water. In an instant the
terrible truth burst upon us that the poor chap had been seized by
sharks--the existence of which in the lagoon we had never suspected--and
on the instant Dirk and I, moved by the same impulse, turned and fled
back to the beach. The incident effectually cured us of any further
desire to reach the wreck; and we never again ventured to attempt any
swimming until a few days ago.
"Dirk and I camped on the beach again that night, building a fire round
our camping-place as a protection against wild beasts. But some time
during the night I happened to awake, to discover that our fire had
burned perilously low, and that some seven or eight great brutes were
hungrily prowling round us, their eyes gleaming like green lamps, and
themselves apparently waiting only until the fire had burned a little
lower, or their courage had grown sufficiently to enable them to leap in
and seize us. I sprang up, awaking Dirk, and together we heaped fresh
brushwood upon the smouldering ashes until the flames leaped up again,
and then our visitors left us. But our narrow escape brought home to us
realisation of the extreme danger of sleeping in exposed situations; and
after breakfast on the following morning we set out to return to our
cave in the valley.
"How long we remained there on this occasion I cannot tell you, for we
soon lost count of time; but it must have been several months,
certainly. For some time we lived exclusively upon fruit; but later on
we contrived to secure a morsel of meat now and then. Upon one
occasion--I am afraid you will not believe me, but I assure you it is
true--we found a young deer tangled up in the biggest and toughest
spider's web you ever saw; and of course we killed and ate the little
creature. That spider's web suggested to us the idea of setting traps,
which we made of monkey-rope, and in which we sometimes caught small
game of one sort or another.
"We should probably have been living in that cave to this day but for
another bad scare--and in that case we should never have known that you
and Billy had survived the wreck, and should have made no attempt to
join you; so perhaps it is just as well for all of us that we had that
scare."
I was by no means certain that I fully agreed with Svorenssen's view of
this matter; but I said nothing, and the man continued his story.
"There was something very curious and uncanny about that scare, though
just exactly what was the nature of it I cannot tell you, for we never
found the explanation of the mystery. It was a long time before we
observed anything in the least degree strange connected with our
surroundings. At first, not only when Pete was with us, but later, when
Dirk and I returned alone, we slept soundly all night and every night,
but eventually there arrived a time when--when-- Now, how am I to say it
so that you will understand me?"
"Ve had disturbin' dreams," prompted Van Ryn.
"Yes," agreed Svorenssen, "that was it; we had disturbing dreams--at
least sometimes we thought they were dreams, while at other times we
were convinced that they were real. A curious circumstance in
connection with it was that the experiences began for both of us on the
same night. It was our practice to build a big fire in front of the
cave every night, to prevent the entrance of wild beasts while we slept,
and on the night about which I am now going to speak we did it as usual.
"We were never long in dropping off to sleep after we had composed
ourselves to rest for the night, and this particular night was no
exception to the rule. I don't know how long I had been asleep--but it
could not have been long, for our fire outside was still burning
brightly and the interior of the cave was brilliantly illuminated by
it--when I suddenly started up, broad awake, with my hair on end and the
sweat of terror literally streaming from my every pore, for I was
feeling more thoroughly scared than I had ever before been, and I was
trembling like a leaf, and my teeth were chattering; although at the
moment I had not the slightest notion what it was that had frightened
me.
"Then I heard Dirk muttering to himself, and looking round I saw that he
too was sitting up, looking as terrified as I felt.
"`Wha--what is it, mate?' he stammered. `What's happened?'
"`That is exactly what I want to know,' said I. `How come you to be
awake?'
"`Hush!' whispered Dirk, in a trembling voice. `Listen!' and he held up
his hand for silence.
"I listened; and--believe me or not as you please, it is the solemn
truth I'm telling you--that cave was full of queer little mysterious
noises, like people whispering, and the soft tread of feet all about us.
I looked, and Dirk looked, but we could see nothing; yet the sounds
continued, now seeming to come from the back of the cave, and then all
about us. I believe I should have been far less terrified if I could
have _seen_ anything to account for the sounds; but there was nothing.
Panic seized me; I sprang to my feet and rushed, shrieking, out of the
cave, dashing headlong right through our fire, and coming a terrible
cropper on the rough, sloping ground in front of the cave. In falling I
must have stunned myself, for I remember nothing more of what happened
that night, but--and this I consider the most extraordinary part of the
whole adventure--when I awoke next morning I found myself back in the
cave again, lying upon my grass bed, with Dirk close alongside."
"Ah!" I commented, "quite a queer dream. What had Van Ryn to say about
it? I suppose you mentioned it to him?"
"I said dot it vas no dream; for shoost vot happened to Svorenssen, the
same thing happened to me," answered Van Ryn, speaking for himself.
"Well, of course, that was very remarkable," I agreed. "Still, it could
have been only a dream, since you found yourselves, I understand, in the
cave and on your own beds in the morning."
"Yah, dot vas so," assented Van Ryn. "But vhen ve comes to overhaul
ourselfs ve found dot our hands and faces vas badly skinned by our fall
outside dot cave, und our hair and beards, as vell as our clothes, vas
singed vhere ve had shoomped through the fire."
"Indeed!" said I. "That was certainly remarkable--if you are both quite
sure you did not imagine those very peculiar happenings."
"If you mean about our skinned hands and faces, and our singed hair and
clothes, there was no imagination about _that_," asserted Svorenssen.
"But about the other--well, when we came to talk about it in broad
daylight we were unable to decide whether we had actually heard the
sounds, or whether we had dreamed them. You see, it was not as though
the thing happened once only; it happened several nights running, and at
length it got upon our nerves to such an extent that we could endure it
no longer; so we agreed to return to the beach and work our way along-
shore, on the look-out for a break in the reef, abreast of which we
proposed to camp in the hope that sooner or later a ship might come
along, enter the lagoon, and take us off."
"A most sensible plan," said I, "and the only thing I am surprised at is
that, to a couple of sailor-men like yourselves, the idea did not come
much earlier."
"Ay," agreed Svorenssen, "it is a pity that it did not. Had it done so
we should no doubt have discovered that you were still alive much
earlier than we did, and found means to signal to you."
"No doubt," said I. "Well, what happened to you after you left the cave
the second time?"
"The first thing," replied Svorenssen, "was that we had the misfortune
to lose Pete's burning-glass, which left us without the means to light a
fire. That was a terrible loss, for it left us defenceless against the
attacks of wild beasts at night, so that we dared not camp anywhere in
the open. Dirk remembered having heard that the natives of certain
countries made fire by rubbing two pieces of wood together, and we tried
the same plan over and over again. Indeed we spent the better part of
several days trying to get fire in that way, but without success; we
could not even raise a whiff of smoke. That was about the worst
misfortune that happened to us, for without fire to protect us at night,
or to cook food during the day, we were continually in difficulties.
But it was not long before we discovered a method of cooking after a
fashion without fire. Of course you will understand that the only
cooking we had to do was when we were able to obtain a morsel of meat,
which was by no means every day. When we succeeded, we used to look
about for a rock that had been exposed to the sun's rays for several
hours, and when we had succeeded in our search we cut our meat into thin
slices and laid it upon the rock, which was hot enough to so far broil
our meat as to render it quite eatable.
"We dared not camp out at night, even on the open beach. The beasts
were certain to discover us, somehow, and came prowling round, giving us
not a minute's peace; and many a narrow escape we had from them. Thus
we were compelled to get what sleep we could during the day-time,
keeping watch and watch, while at night we did such travelling as was
possible. But that was not much, for more often than not we were driven
to take refuge in trees, or to retreat into the water, sitting in it up
to our necks, with sharks cruising round within a few fathoms of us and
occasionally making dashes into the shallow water and running themselves
aground in their efforts to reach us. Ah! those were lively times and
no mistake; and often enough we used to tell each other that life was
not worth living; yet we spared no pains to preserve it.
"Then, as though we had not already enough trouble, Dirk must needs fall
sick of a fever of some sort, and became violently delirious. For three
nights and four days I could do nothing with him; he was simply stark,
staring mad; he would not permit me to approach him, but threatened me
with his knife whenever he saw me. The only thing I could do was to
keep him just in sight, and a pretty dance he led me, following him into
the woods and all over the place--excepting into the water. Luckily for
us both he had sense enough to keep clear of that, or the sharks would
assuredly have had him. But of course that sort of thing could not long
continue, and toward the evening of the fourth day the poor chap
collapsed, and, as luck would have it, I found a comparatively safe
refuge for him among some rocks, where I looked after and attended to
him until he was well enough to be up and about again. But the fatigue,
anxiety, and loss of rest told upon me so severely that no sooner was
Dirk able to look after himself than I fell ill; and then it was his
turn to look after me for about a fortnight.
"Then one day, when I was beginning to pull round a bit, Dirk--who had
been out foraging for food--returned to our refuge in a great state of
excitement, with the intelligence that he had just seen a sailing boat
alongside the wreck. The statement greatly alarmed me, for of course I
did not believe a word of it, and my fear was that my chum was suffering
a relapse, and was again experiencing delusions. But when I suggested
this idea to him he indignantly scouted the idea, repeating his
statement and bidding me crawl to the opening of the shelter and see for
myself, if I did not believe him.
"I took his advice--it was of course the obvious thing to do--and there,
to my amazement, was the boat, unmistakably enough, with her mast
stepped, rigging set up, and sails stowed. What was more, after looking
intently for several minutes I had the impression that I caught glimpses
of one or two people moving about aboard the wreck. We watched all that
day, and the next, and the next, every moment expecting to see the boat
leave the wreck; and all that time we were trying desperately hard to
make a fire and thus create a smoke, so that whoever was aboard the
wreck would see it, and come across to ascertain what it meant; but, try
as we would, we were unable to manage it. Then one day Dirk went out to
look at a trap which he had set in the woods, and upon his return he
reported that the boat had left the wreck and was heading along the
lagoon in a northerly direction, and that there were two people in her--
a man and a boy; so we naturally concluded that it must be you and
Billy, and that you had somehow escaped drowning after all."
"Then," said I to Van Ryn, "if you saw us as distinctly as that, why did
you not show yourself on the beach, and wave to attract our attention?"
"I did," replied the Dutchman. "D'ye think I'm such a fool as to miss a
chance? But you vas not look my vay, not neither of you. Und though I
shout and yell und run along the beach you take no notice, but sail on
until at last you sails out of sight."
"That is very strange," said I, "for whenever I was cruising in the
lagoon I always kept an eye on the shore."
"Then you moost 'ave been lookin' out abeam, or ahead, not astarn, vhere
I 'appened to be," declared Van Ryn.
"Possibly," I agreed, for I saw that the man was in an aggressively
disputatious humour, and I wanted to have no words with him. "Well,
what happened after that? Go on with your yarn, Svorenssen."
"We saw you three or four times after that," resumed Svorenssen, "and
once you passed so close that we easily recognised both of you.
Unfortunately, we were both up a tree at the time, and were unable to
descend, for the reason that there was a savage brute of a wild pig that
had driven us up aloft and was waiting below for us to come down again.
Of course we shouted our loudest, and as long as there seemed any
possibility that you might hear; but it was no good. I suspect it was
the roar of the surf on the reef that drowned our voices. But every
time we saw you, if you were not going alongside the wreck you were
steering north. So at length we came to the conclusion that you had
probably rigged up some sort of a shelter in that direction; and we
accordingly agreed to work along-shore in a northerly direction, and try
to find out where you had bestowed yourselves.
"To you, sailing along easily and comfortably in your boat, I dare say
it would seem no very arduous job to work your way along a few miles of
open beach; but to us two, circumstanced as we were, in a place swarming
with savage brutes that seemed to be for ever lurking on the watch for
us; without the means of kindling a fire as a protection; and with only
our sheath-knives as weapons; obliged to enter the woods at the peril of
our lives to obtain food--and as often as not driven out again without
the food; able to sleep only during the day-time--and very often not
even then; compelled to seek shelter in trees for hours at a time--ay,
and often enough for a whole day--to save our lives, it was simply--
well, there are no words strong enough to describe it. Why, there were
days--plenty of them--when we did not make so much as a mile of
progress; when, from one cause or another, we did not make a fathom,
much less a mile. No wonder that we were so long a time working our way
round to you. Indeed, now that I look back upon the innumerable
difficulties that we had to contend with, my only surprise is that we
ever managed to get here at all.
"Then, as an appropriate climax of all our difficulties, the forest one
day caught fire--perhaps you saw the blaze?--and almost the whole of the
island was swept clean of every green thing. Phew! that was an
experience, with a vengeance! If I had not beheld the scene with my own
eyes I could never have believed there were so many wild creatures in
all the world as we then saw; great, fierce monkeys, bigger than a man;
little monkeys in thousands; leopards; wild pigs as savage as lions;
deer of all sorts and sizes; and creatures the like of which we had
never seen or heard of before--they all came swarming down to the beach
to escape the flames. And--a very curious circumstance I thought it--
they were all so thoroughly terrified that none of them interfered with
the others, or with us, but all stood huddled together by the water's
edge, bleating, squealing, roaring, howling--no, I cannot attempt to
describe it; it is the kind of thing that has to be _seen_ to be
understood.
"Naturally, we all edged away as far as we could from the flames and the
flying sparks, and eventually it began to dawn upon us all--beasts as
well as men--that the extreme north end of the island might possibly be
spared, and we all with one accord set off in that direction. And for a
little while--twenty-four hours, or thereabout--we men did very well;
the creatures all stood huddled together, trembling and making queer
moaning, noises, too terrified to take notice of anybody or anything,
and when we needed food all that was necessary was to lay hold of a
deer, haul him out of the crowd, and cut his throat--and there was all
the food we required.
"But that condition of affairs was of course quite temporary. No sooner
had the fire burned itself out than the creatures recovered their
courage and turned upon each other like--well, like wild beasts. Dirk
and I quickly recognised that the north end of the island was too
perilous a place for us. There was therefore nothing for us but to
escape from our dangerous neighbours while we could, and this could only
be done by bearing away south again, which we did.
"There was no cause for further fear of wild beasts as we pursued our
journey southward; there was not a living thing to be seen anywhere
ashore; even the birds had all vanished. That condition of affairs was
of course all in our favour, so far as it went; but the unfortunate part
of it was that the fruit was also destroyed; so that, while we could now
rest undisturbed at night, our only food consisted of such raw shell-
fish as we could find at the margin of the beach; and we could find no
fresh water wherewith to quench our thirst.
"For two days and nights we were in that predicament, our thirst being
terrible, and the only relief we could obtain--and it was very partial--
was to enter the sea and lie down in it for about ten minutes, allowing
the ripples to wash over us, and taking care not to go far enough in to
give the sharks a chance to get at us. Then, when we felt sufficiently
relieved, we staggered along for a few yards, repeating the process
about thirty or forty times a day.
"At length, however, we found a stream of fresh water and camped beside
it. But so terrible had been our suffering from thirst that, having at
length found fresh water, we could not summon the courage to leave it
again.
"One day, however, as we were seeking shell-fish on the beach near the
mouth of the stream, Dirk suddenly remarked:--
"`Olaf, my son, just run your eye along the ridge of that hill yonder,
and tell me what you see.'
"I did so; and presently saw what had attracted his attention. There
was a little patch of green that looked as though it might be trees,
while all below it was black, where the fire had been.
"`It certainly looks very like a clump of trees,' said I; `and where
there are trees there will also probably be fruit. Let us take a walk
up there and investigate.'
"`And what about leaving this fresh water?' asked Dirk.
"`No need to do that,' said I. `The stream comes down from that
direction, and we can probably follow it for a good part of the way.
Surely it is worth while to risk it.'
"So we started, following the course of the stream until we had arrived
very near to our destination. And when that was reached we found it to
be a nice little patch of forest, rising to the top of the hill and
dipping down on the other side of it for a distance of about two miles.
And the reason why it had not been burnt with the rest was because it
stood on the lee side of a lake big enough to cut off the flames from
that little patch.
"There were plenty of birds there; and when we proceeded to investigate
we soon found that there were animals also--small monkeys, creatures
very like hares but with short ears, a few deer; but nothing dangerous
so far as we could discover. And there was an abundance of fruit of
several kinds also; we therefore quickly determined to settle down there
and rest a bit before going any farther. There was a great patch of
reeds along the western end of the lake, and here thousands of wild duck
used to settle every night; and we soon found that it was an easy matter
to get a few by simply waiting for them among the reeds and catching
them as they swam past.
"We built ourselves a hut of wattles, thatched with palm leaves, that
kept us dry and comfortable when it rained. So happy and easy in our
minds were we that we almost forgot your existence; and when we happened
to remember, we used to say to each other: `Never mind; we are every bit
as comfortable as they are; we will stop on here a bit longer.' And so
we did, deferring our departure day after day and week after week, until
finally the ducks grew shy of us, and the other creatures seemed to
recognise our traps and avoid them; so that at length a time came when
we were pretty hard put to it to make a living. Then, too, we began to
feel lonesome, and to get snappy and short-tempered with each other; to
dream and think and talk about home and its comforts, until we grew
thoroughly dissatisfied with the life we were living; and one day, after
we had had one of our now frequent quarrels, I said to Dirk:--
"`Look here, mate, we appear to have quite forgotten those other two.
Do you think that a man of brains like Mr Blackburn is going to settle
down and be satisfied to pass the remainder of his life among a group of
desert islands like these? Because, if you do, I don't. Just consider
the facts. There is he and the boy; and you may safely bet that,
whatever else they may have done, or left undone, they will have taken
care to save the treasure that we found aboard that old galleon; and
what good will it do them so long as they remain here? No good at all.
Therefore I think we may take it for granted that he will set his wits
to work to get away from here by hook or by crook, taking the treasure
with them; and then where do _we_ come in, and what becomes of our share
of it? Let us cut adrift from this spot--which, anyhow, is of no
further use to us--and join them; and when they go, we will go with
them, and take our share of the treasure.'
"Dirk quite saw the force of my reasoning and eagerly agreed to my
proposal; so we made a start there and then, and--and here we are."
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
IS TROUBLE BREWING?
"Exactly," I concurred. "Here you are. But how did you know where
Billy and I had located ourselves? and how did you contrive to make your
way here from the southern end of West Island?"
"West Island--is that the name of the place? Oh, we managed pretty
well," returned Svorenssen. "From the ridge of the hill where the
forest was all burned away we were able to get a very fair idea of the
geography of the group in general. We counted six islands in addition
to the one we were already on, and we observed that the one to the
eastward of us was, like our own, fire-swept; also that at one point it
was separated from our island by a channel only about half a mile wide.
To the northward of that island we saw another, with small groups of
trees dotted about here and there upon it, while the remainder of its
surface appeared to be covered with corn-fields or something similar; so
it is not to be wondered at if we jumped to the conclusion that we
should find you established there. So we made a start by heading for
the narrowest part of the channel between our own island and the next
one, carrying with us as much fruit as we could handle, for we knew not
when or where we should find more.
"Upon reaching the channel the question that confronted us was: How were
we going to get across? We could see but one way, and that was to swim
it. But what about sharks? We had already lost one of our number
through them, and we had no desire that a similar fate should befall
either of us. Therefore we camped alongside that channel two days, and
while one of us foraged for food, the other just sat and intently
watched the water. And when the evening of the second day arrived
without disclosing any sign of sharks in the channel, we agreed to risk
the passage; so we stripped off our clothes--or what remained of them--
made them into a bundle, secured them upon our heads, and waded in.
"We got across safely, and were lucky enough to land just where a little
stream of fresh water came down from the hill that rose in the middle of
the island. We camped alongside the stream that night, and made our
supper of melons and ground-nuts that had grown since the passage of the
fire over the land. On the following day we proceeded inland, following
the course of the stream and heading toward the top of the hill, from
which we hoped to obtain a little further knowledge of the geography of
the group and also, it might be, some more definite information as to
your own whereabouts. And we were successful in both particulars, for
while we were on the top of that hill we saw your sailing boat coming
round the eastern end of the island across the channel northward of us.
Watching you, we saw you land on that island, stay there a while, and
then sail away again in a north-easterly direction. Upon seeing this,
Dirk and I came to the conclusion that the proper thing for us to do
would be to descend to the beach, and there await your next appearance,
when we would signal you. We had already detected a little stream
flowing down the hill-side and discharging into the channel, quite near
the spot where we decided to await your reappearance, so we followed it
down to the water's edge, where we camped. Then that same evening your
boat again hove in sight, and we saw you land a party of niggers just
opposite where we were watching; having done which you again made sail
to the northward and eastward; which led us to the conclusion that after
all you had not settled upon that cultivated island--as we had at first
supposed--but somewhere else. Of course we showed ourselves upon the
beach, and hailed; but the channel was too wide for our voices to carry
across, and probably you never looked in our direction, so we failed to
attract your attention. But we knew now that you were still on the
group, and that we were on your track; so we did not trouble overmuch.
"Then, before your boat had passed out of sight, and while we were still
watching, we saw a nigger paddling across the channel from the island
you had touched at to the one that we were upon. He was heading to land
at a spot rather more than a mile to the eastward of where we were, so
we got back into the young growth that had sprung up after the fire, and
pushed along toward the spot for which he was making. We arrived a few
minutes before he did and, crouching down, we saw him haul up his tub of
a canoe on the beach, and make his way inland. We allowed him to get
well away from the beach, and then we crept down to the canoe, launched
her, and proceeded to paddle in the track of your boat.
"It fell dark almost before we had got fairly under way, but there was a
fine moon, so it did not greatly matter. We paddled down the channel
and across it to the point round which you had recently vanished--a good
eight miles we reckoned it to be--and hot work it was for two men who
had been on short commons for more than a month; but we forgot all about
that when, upon rounding the point, we saw, at a distance of not more
than five or six miles, a _light_; and we knew that now you could not be
very far away, while we were in possession of the means to reach you.
But it was a tough job to get that little tub of the nigger's along when
once we had rounded the point, for at once we felt the full strength of
the easterly breeze, and it and the popple it raised were together just
as much as we could barely stem. It must have taken us _hours_ to get
across that five or six miles of water; and long before we landed you
had put all lights out, and turned in; but there was the house, plain
enough to be seen in the bright moonlight, so we headed straight for it,
and landed at last on the beach just below."
"And what became of the punt that you stole from that unfortunate
native?" I demanded.
"Why, I reckon she's still there on the beach where we left her," was
the reply.
"Still there!" I exclaimed. "Why--yes--I suppose she is. This must be
looked to at once. Billy, take this man, Van Ryn, with you, and get him
to show you where they left the punt. Then you and he will paddle her
round to the cove here, and make her fast astern of the sailing boat.
Then get the sailing boat under way, and Van Ryn will point out to you
the spot on Apes' Island from which he and Svorenssen took her--"
"Nod me, misder; don'd you think id!" suddenly stormed the Dutchman.
"You're nod my schibber now, and I don'd dake orders from you or anybody
else. Ve're all equal now."
"Are we?" said I, slipping my hand into my jacket pocket. "That's where
you are making a big mistake, my man. I mean to be just as much skipper
here as I was aboard the _Yorkshire Lass_; and if you men wish to share
in the comforts of life that I am able to give you, and to go home with
me when I go, you will have to submit to discipline, and obey my
orders."
"Ah! ve'll see about dot," interrupted Van Ryn, springing to his feet.
"Olaf, mine zon, haf ve comed all dis vay from over yonder to be ordered
about mit dis man? Let's show 'im dot ve means to do as ve likes here.
Come on!" And, whipping out the remains of his sheath knife, he
gathered himself together for a spring upon me, with one eye on
Svorenssen meanwhile, in full expectation that the latter would back him
up.
But I was fully prepared. There had been, from the moment when I first
encountered these two men, early that morning, a certain truculence of
speech and demeanour that warned me against trusting them too
implicitly, and I had been on my guard with them all day. So now, as
the Dutchman sprang to his feet I sprang to mine, and, leaping back from
them, out of arms' reach, I whipped out the revolver that I had been
carrying all day in my jacket pocket, and shouted:
"Hands up, both of you! Don't so much as think of trying conclusions
with me; for if either of you advance a single step, I shoot--to kill!
I remember the reputation you two men--and _you_ especially, Van Ryn--
earned for yourselves aboard the brigantine; you were perpetually
instigating trouble. But don't for a moment imagine that you will be
permitted to make trouble here, for I simply won't have it. At the
first hint of anything of that sort I'll hand you over to my friends,
the natives of yonder island, and ask them to take charge of you; indeed
I believe it would only be an act of ordinary prudence to turn you over
to them at once."
"No, no, Mister," interposed Svorenssen hurriedly, "don't think of it.
There ain't goin' to be any trouble, I assure ye. Don't take any notice
o' what Dirk says, Mister; 'is bark's always a lot worse 'n 'is bite.
He don't mean a half nor a quarter of what 'e says--sit down, you
thunderin' fool, and put away that knife of yours," he continued,
turning suddenly upon the Dutchman and forcing him back on the packing-
case upon which they had both been sitting, and seating himself beside
him. Then he leaned over his companion and began whispering hurriedly
and excitedly in his ear.
"Stop that, Svorenssen!" I exclaimed. "If you have any advice to give
that man, speak it aloud, so that I may hear. If it is good advice
there is no need to whisper it."
"All right, Mister," returned the Finn, "I was only tellin' him not to
make a bloomin' fool of hisself. And now, come on, Dirk, and let's do
what Mr Blackburn orders. What 'e says is right; he's skipper still,
and we may's well recernise it first as last. You knows as well as I do
that we can't do nothin' without 'im. Come along, Billy."
Thereupon the two men rose to their feet and proceeded to slouch along
the shore in the direction of the spot where they had left the punt.
"On second thoughts," said I, "go, you two men, and bring the punt round
here to the cove; and Billy and I will come out in the sailing boat to
meet you."
Svorenssen waved his hand to indicate that he understood, and the two
men continued on their way; the Finn, I observed, talking very earnestly
to his companion.
As soon as they were out of sight, Billy and I walked down to the boat,
boarded her, got under way, and worked her round to the south beach, off
which we fell in with and took the punt in tow. The breeze was blowing
moderately fresh, which enabled us to make the trip to Apes' Island in a
trifle over two hours, at the end of which we found the unfortunate
native, squatted on his haunches, anxiously awaiting deliverance from
the former haunt of his enemies, where I perceived the young vegetation
was already flourishing vigorously. We at once took the man aboard,
where, during our passage across to Cliff Island, I explained to him as
best I could the episode of the stolen punt--to the amazement of the two
seaman, who seemed to regard as wonderful the fact that in the course of
a year I had acquired a fairly fluent command of the natives' language.
I observed with satisfaction that, when Bowata and a considerable
company of the natives came down to the beach to greet us upon seeing
our boat heading for the landing-place, the two seamen looked more than
a trifle uneasy, fearing perhaps that I would seize the opportunity to
fulfil my threat to hand them over to the charge of the blacks; and I
was not sorry to let them see thus early what a powerful force of
auxiliaries I had behind me should they be meditating anything in the
nature of an undue assertion of independence. I designedly directed the
particular attention of Bowata and his followers to my new companions,
explaining who and what they were; but of course the shellbacks
understood nothing of what I was saying, and they made little or no
attempt to conceal their relief when I at length bade farewell to the
blacks and we made sail again upon our return to Eden.
On the following morning I resumed work upon the cutter; and I thought
that Van Ryn and Svorenssen looked somewhat disconcerted when, in
accordance with my arrangement with Bowata, a party of ten sturdy
natives arrived at the shipyard about 8 a.m. in the Chinese boat I had
given them, to lend us a hand as and when required. But the two seamen
turned to without demur, and I soon had reason to congratulate myself
upon my acquisition of them; for while Svorenssen revealed an almost
professional skill in the use of carpenters' tools, the Dutchman
explained that if I would cut out the cutter's sails he would undertake
to make them to my entire satisfaction. Both men did much more and far
better work than I in the least anticipated; and when at length we
knocked off work for the day, and I surveyed the result of that one
day's work, I felt that I might now at last begin to calculate, with
some approach to accuracy, the date at which our labours might be
expected to come to a successful conclusion. Two days later Van Ryn--
who was working at the new sails under the shade of a tree at some
distance from the shipyard--requested that, if possible, I would spare
Billy to assist him; and as the request seemed reasonable I acceded to
it without demur.
Thereafter matters went so smoothly for a fortnight or more that, in my
satisfaction at the progress we were making, I almost forgot the
suspicions which the attitude and utterances of the two seamen had
aroused when they so unexpectedly reappeared upon the scene. With their
assistance, work upon the cutter had progressed so speedily that the
planking of her was completed, the laying of her deck about half done,
her mast and bowsprit finished, and her mainsail and gaff-topsail sewn
and in process of roping; I therefore estimated that another month would
see my ambitious project complete and possibly ourselves at sea.
But my complacency was somewhat disturbed when, on a certain evening, I
was instructing Billy in the problem of the reduction of the sun's
altitude to the meridian. I had concluded my explanation of the
problem, when the boy, glancing up at me with a smile, remarked:
"That chap, Van Ryn, is awfully inquisitive, Mr Blackburn. He was
chaffing me to-day upon the difference in my manner of speaking now from
what it was when he first knew me, and I said: Yes, I had to thank you
for it, for you had insisted I should study and improve my education
every evening since we had been cast away. Then he wanted to know all
about what you had taught me, and how much I knew; and I told him that
you had been teaching me arithmetic, geometry, algebra, trigonometry,
geography, and navigation; and that last word surprised him, I can tell
you. It was amusing to see how interested he at once became; he wanted
to know just how much I knew about navigation; and he would hardly
believe me when I told him that I knew enough to enable me to determine
a ship's position, day or night, provided that the sky was clear and I
could get a sight of certain heavenly bodies. But when I insisted that
I could do all I had said, he seemed no end pleased. `Ah,' he said, `I
must tell Svorenssen what you say; he will be glad to hear it. It was
only a few nights ago that we were talking about the time when we should
leave these islands, and saying what a fix we should all be in if Mr
Blackburn should meet with another accident, or fall ill while we were
at sea. And so you really believe, Billy, that if such a thing should
happen, you could navigate the cutter?' I said I was quite sure I
could; and then the conversation dropped; but he kept harking back to
it, time after time, showing that he was still thinking about it."
"Yes," said I, "I can quite believe it; and I can understand, too, his
amazement at your assurance that you--a mere boy--could, if put to it,
navigate the cutter, or any other craft for that matter. There is
probably not one boy in ten thousand of your age, Billy, who could
truthfully claim such ability. But two circumstances have been in your
favour; in the first place you are naturally a sharp, intelligent lad,
with a strong predilection for study; and in the next place there was
little else for you to do on this group but learn, until we started to
build the cutter. Now, Billy, what you have told me relative to Van
Ryn's inquisitiveness and his cross-questioning of you has greatly
interested me, for a reason which I will explain later on; therefore,
while I am not as a rule inquisitive, I will ask you to make a point of
reporting to me the substance of any further conversations which the man
may hold with you, and to take very particular notice of any questions
he may ask you. And now, let us return to the consideration of our
nautical problem."
At the moment it seemed strange that Billy's story should so powerfully
have affected me, but the fact remains that it did. After we had turned
in that night I lay restlessly tossing upon my bed, wondering--wondering
whether Van Ryn's questioning of Billy was the natural result of pure,
unadulterated inquisitiveness, or whether it had a deeper significance.
The conversation appeared to have arisen naturally enough. I could not
detect in the relation of it any indication of a deliberate attempt on
the part of the man to lead up to the subject of Billy's educational
acquirements; what reason, indeed, could he have for doing so, apart
from the lad's more refined mode of speech? The matter that most
powerfully exercised me was the Dutchman's eager curiosity to discover
the full extent of Billy's qualifications as a navigator. Yet, even as
to this, there seemed little enough reason for uneasiness; the man had
given a quite plausible reason for such curiosity, a reason that I could
perfectly understand and appreciate; but I wondered whether it was the
true, the actual reason; or was there another and more sinister one at
the back of his evil mind.
In any case, what, I wondered, could have put the thought in the
Dutchman's head that something might possibly happen to me while we were
at sea. Certainly the experience had already befallen him once since
the commencement of the voyage; but with men of such limited
intelligence as that of Van Ryn and Svorenssen even such an experience
as that usually makes so very transitory an impression that it soon
fades. Moreover, the difficulty had been surmounted, and they would
naturally believe that, should it again arise, it could again be
surmounted in the same way. The only reason that I could think of why
such an idea should have taken so strong a hold upon the Dutchman's mind
was that, _under certain circumstances_, the eventuality of which he had
spoken might be very much more than possible: _it might be inevitable_.
Reasoning thus, I next asked myself the question: Should anything happen
to me--should I, for instance, _die_, either aboard the cutter or before
leaving the islands--how would my death affect the fortunes of those two
men, Svorenssen and Van Ryn, to say nothing of that of Billy? And why
should it be desired to get rid of me?
Those were not difficult questions to answer. In either of the above
hypothetical cases the boy would be absolutely in the power and at the
mercy of the two men; and I shuddered to think of what would happen to
him, with me out of the way. Svorenssen and Van Ryn were both big
powerful men, and, should they resort to violence, what could a boy do
by way of resisting them? Then the cutter was now so far advanced that,
at a pinch, the two seamen could complete her, launch her, and make her
ready for sea without my assistance. Their escape from the group was
therefore in any case assured; while, so far as the navigation of the
craft was concerned, they had already wormed out of Billy the
information that he was competent to undertake that.
But if the two seamen were actually conspiring against me, as I now
began to think was at least probable, their primary object would
doubtless be to secure the whole of the treasure for themselves. They
doubtless recognised that so long as I--a man as powerful as either of
them, with a mind already tinctured with suspicion of them--lived, to
attempt to secure more than their fair share of the treasure might be
both difficult and dangerous, and possibly even result in failure. But
with me effectually disposed of the enterprise would wear a totally
different aspect. They would complete the cutter, sail away in her,
with the treasure on board and Billy as navigator, willing or unwilling,
and upon arriving within sight of their destination they would murder
the poor boy; and the rest would be easy--or so they would probably
believe. Yes; knowing the men so well as I did, I felt that there was
ground for suspicion of them, and I resolved that, without appearing to
do so, I would henceforth keep a wary eye upon them both, and be
constantly, day and night, on my guard against any act of treachery on
their part.
Now it was not often that Billy did anything foolish; but boys will
always be boys, to the end of time, I expect; and about a week after the
lad's conversation with me on the subject of Van Ryn's inquisitiveness
the spirit of mischief suddenly seized him and, "just for a lark", as he
subsequently admitted to me, he must needs leave the Dutchman, upon some
pretence, run up to the house, and then pay us a visit at the shipyard,
bringing Kit with him on a leash, that he might enjoy the consternation
of the natives at the sight of the leopard. It was fortunate that I
spotted the pair when I did, for the beast was already beyond Billy's
control and dragging the lad helplessly after him with the evident
determination to interview the strangers more closely. The animal,
although not yet fully grown, had developed into a magnificent specimen
of his kind, as big as a mastiff and about twice as powerful. To hold
him when I hurriedly relieved Billy of his charge taxed my strength to
such an extent that I was obliged to shout to the workers to quit work
and get into hiding at a safe distance; but, even so, the scent of the
men excited Kit to such an extent that it was only with the utmost
difficulty I was able to drag him back to the bungalow and safely lash
him up.
I was therefore not very greatly surprised when, after work was over
that evening, Svorenssen approached me and said:
"See here, Mister, did ye happen to salve the arms chest from the wreck
before she washed off the reef and foundered?"
"Yes," I said. "What about it?"
"Why, just this," he blustered. "Me and Dirk wants a brace of
revolvers, cartridges, and a cutlash apiece out of that chest. That's
what about it."
"Really!" said I. "A very modest request, very modestly put. Is it
permissible to ask why you want those things, and in what way you
purpose to use them?"
"Oh yes, cert'nly," was the reply. "There's no objections to you astin'
as many questions as you bloomin' well likes. We wants 'em to purtect
ourselves again' that snarlin', savage leopard o' yours. It ain't safe
to be on the same hisland with the brute."
"He will not interfere with you, or molest you in any way if you give
him a wide berth," I retorted. "As to giving you the weapons you
demand, I won't do it, so that's flat."
"You won't, eh?" returned the Finn, glowering at me savagely. "Then all
I can say, Mister, is that me and Dirk 'll have to see what can be done
about purtectin' ourselves. I, for one, ain't goin' to take the risk of
bein' tore to pieces; no, not for another day, and so I gives you
warnin'."
"Now, see here, Svorenssen," said I. "I can make allowance--and do--for
your very natural fear of the leopard; but, as I have already told you,
the animal will not hurt either of you men if you keep clear of him.
And don't let me hear any more of such talk as you have been indulging
in during the last few minutes. You forget yourself, my man; and you
seem to forget also that you came to this island of your own free will.
I did not invite you. I did not even _want_ you; I was doing quite well
without your assistance, as I can again, if necessary. So let me have
no more threats of any sort, or I shall be compelled, for peace and
quietness' sake, to request my friend Bowata and his people to take
charge of you. This is not the first time that you have obliged me to
say this. I shall not again repeat it. Let there be no more bickering
between us. The cutter is very nearly completed and, please God, we
shall soon be at sea in her and on our way back to civilisation and
home."
The man stared at me for several seconds with, I thought, murder in his
eyes, then he turned away, remarking:
"All right, Mister, you're top dog now, and what you says goes, but--"
I affected not to catch that final word, but proceeded to indicate to
the natives the several jobs upon which I wished them to employ
themselves on the morrow. But what, I wondered, was the explanation of
this fresh outburst of turbulence on Svorenssen's part--for fresh it
was. Only once before had he displayed such insolence of manner to me;
and I wondered whether, perchance, it had any connection with the
suspicions that had been bred in my mind by Billy's report of the
Dutchman's recent conversation with him. But, I argued, those
suspicions might be wholly unfounded, and be the result of a certain
unsuspected mental disorder brought about by the long series of unusual
experiences through which I had passed, beginning with the destruction
of the _Saturn_. In any case, whether my suspicions were well founded
or otherwise, there could be no disputing the fact that the two seamen
were turbulent, unruly, violent characters, liable at any moment to
become dangerous; and therefore they must be carefully watched. As for
voluntarily furnishing them with weapons, and so rendering them ten
times more dangerous than they already were, if Svorenssen really
imagined I would do such a thing he must surely have set me down for a
fool.
From this time forward, without appearing to do so, I maintained a close
watch upon both men, noting and weighing their every word, and
endeavouring to deduce from their general conduct, and especially from
their demeanour toward myself, whether or not they were really hatching
a plot against me; but for rather more than a week I was unable to
detect anything to justify the least apprehension on my part. Of course
it was impossible for me to observe the pair when they were alone
together after the day's work was done, but although Svorenssen
maintained his usual surly demeanour I attached little importance to
that, for I believed it to be natural to him, while there was no doubt
that both men were working steadily and well.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
A TRAGIC END TO OUR TROUBLES.
On a certain evening, some eight or ten days after that outburst on the
part of the Finn in connection with his demand for weapons, Billy
remarked to me, apropos of nothing in particular, as we sat together
studying as usual:
"That Dutchman is a queer chap and no mistake, Mr Blackburn. He will
sit for hours, saying never a word but: `Billy, pass me that,' or
`Billy, take hold of this,' and then all of a sudden he'll begin to
chatter like a parrot."
"Really!" said I. "And what does he chatter about?"
"Oh, all sorts of things," answered Billy, "chiefly about what he and
Svorenssen went through before they joined us here. And he likes to
hear how _we_ managed, too, before we settled down on Eden. Do you
know, I'm beginning to think he's not such a bad sort of chap after all.
He seems to admire you immensely."
"Does he, indeed?" I commented dryly. "In what particular way does he
reveal his admiration?"
"Well," said Billy, "he thinks you are perfectly wonderful, every way.
Wonderfully clever as a navigator, you know; clever to have been able to
build the sailing boat; still more clever to have designed and very
nearly built such a beautiful craft as the cutter; and most clever of
all to have built this bungalow. He said that he could understand that
a clever sailor like you might be able to build a boat; but he could not
understand how any sailor--even _you_--could build such a fine house.
He wanted to know how long it took us to build it, and how we set about
it, whether you invented it as we went on, or whether you drew it out on
paper beforehand; and when I said that you had drawn it all out before
we began to build, he said that he'd dearly like to see the drawing,
because it would give him some wrinkles if he should ever again be
shipwrecked."
"And what did you say to that?" I asked.
"Well," said Billy, "you see, I thought it was perhaps his roundabout
way of asking me to show him the plan, so I said I didn't know where it
was; that I rather thought you had destroyed it; and when I said that,
the poor chap looked so disappointed that I showed him what it was like,
by sketching it out on the ground with the point of a sail needle."
"That is very interesting," I said. "Here is paper and a pencil. Just
reproduce on it, as nearly as you can, the sketch you made on the
ground."
The boy took the pencil and paper, and in a few minutes completed a
rough but quite accurate plan of the bungalow, showing the relative
positions of the several rooms in the front and rear portions of the
house. I observed also that he indicated with scrupulous fidelity the
position of every window and door, showing the possibility of passing
from any one room to any other, through the passages and the living-
room.
"This sketch does you credit," I said. "It gives an excellent idea of
the general arrangement of the house; but I really do not see how the
information it affords is in the least degree likely to be of use to Van
Ryn, even should he be shipwrecked a dozen times over. To speak quite
frankly, I would very much rather that you had not made that sketch on
the ground for his information. Do you think he understood it?"
"No," confessed Billy, "I don't believe he did, for he asked all sorts
of silly questions about it that he wouldn't have asked if he had
understood the plan."
"Ah, indeed!" said I. "Do you happen to remember any of those
questions?"
"N-o, I don't think I do," replied Billy. "They were so awfully stupid
that I didn't pay much attention to them. I explained that those
marks,"--pointing to the drawing--"represented doors; yet the silly ass
couldn't understand how the servants got from their room to the kitchen,
nor how they brought our meals from the kitchen to the living-room
without going outside and walking round the house. And he couldn't
understand how you and I got from our rooms to the living-room without
going outside."
"That's too bad," said I. "It seems to reflect upon your powers of
description, doesn't it, Billy?"
"It does, rather," admitted the boy, "yet I did my best to make him
understand. But he didn't seem able to grasp that we were supposed to
be looking down upon the bungalow, with the roof off. He persisted in
thinking that we were looking square at it, and that the rooms in the
rear were _above_ those in the front of the house."
"Stupid fellow!" I commented. "And was the house the only thing he
manifested curiosity about?"
"Oh no," answered Billy; "there were lots of other things he asked
about. He wanted to know where we got Kit from, and how it is that he
is so tame with us, and so savage with everybody else. He asked if we
weren't afraid that some day he would turn upon us and do us an injury.
He said that if he was boss he'd shoot the beast right away; and he
grumbled a bit because you wouldn't give him and Svorenssen any firearms
to defend themselves with, not only from the leopard but also from the
natives, whom, he said, he didn't trust a little bit, and who might come
across any night and massacre us all in our sleep. Then he wanted to
know how we are going to get the cutter into the water when she is ready
for launching; and then--let me see--oh, yes, we got on about the
natives again--and the apes. He said it was all very well for us who
could bolt ourselves securely in the house at night; but what about him
and Svorenssen if an ape should come across and surprise them in their
tent some night? How were they to defend themselves without weapons of
any kind? I laughed at that, and told him that there was so little
likelihood of anything of that sort happening that we never closed our
doors or windows, except when it rained. But he said that didn't
matter; we could defend ourselves if such a thing happened, because we
had plenty of arms; and they ought to have some too. He said that, what
with the leopard, the apes, and the savages, life was none too safe for
unarmed men like him and the Finn."
"Did his terror seem quite real, or do you think it was at all
exaggerated?" I asked.
"Oh no," asserted Billy, with conviction; "it was real enough, and it
wasn't exaggerated either; he was in a regular funk. You see, he and
Svorenssen had a pretty bad time, one way and another, all the time they
were on West Island; but it was the apes that frightened them worst of
all."
"Yes," I agreed, "I can quite understand that; but,"--as an idea
suggested itself to me--"do you think Van Ryn suspects that you repeat
these conversations of his to me?"
"N-o, I don't think so," answered the boy. "Why should he. I don't
believe such a thought ever enters his head."
I did not feel by any means so sure of that as Billy seemed to be. If
the man suspected that his remarks and questionings were repeated to me,
his assumption of extreme stupidity might be explained as designed to
disarm any suspicion aroused in my mind by the queer character of some
of his questions. Take those relating to the arrangement of the house,
for example. The pretence that the information would be valuable to
him, should he ever again be cast away, was altogether too puerile for
consideration; he required the information--and very cleverly extracted
it from the unsuspecting Billy, too--for some entirely different reason.
But what was that reason? I wondered.
I was not long kept wondering.
The second night after the above-recorded conversation between Billy and
myself brought with it the threat of a change of weather. It had been
exceptionally hot all day, with less wind than usual, and there was a
languorous quality in the atmosphere that seemed to portend thunder, a
portent that was strengthened toward nightfall when the wind died away
to the merest zephyr, while a great bank of heavy, lowering cloud piled
itself up slowly along the eastern horizon so that the rising full moon
had no chance to show herself. As the evening progressed what little
air of wind there was died completely away, and we were left, with all
doors and windows flung wide open, gasping for breath, and sweltering as
in a Turkish bath. I endured it as long as I could, and then, tossing
aside the book I was attempting to read, announced my determination to
go down to the cove and have a swim.
Billy declared that he would like a swim too, if he could take a header
off the veranda into deep water; but as to walking down to the cove in
that heat--no; much as he would enjoy a dip he wasn't prepared to
undergo that amount of exertion to get it.
As the gathering storm seemed unlikely to break suddenly, I did not
unduly hurry over my dip, but remained in the water about an hour,
emerging at last delightfully cool, and quite ready for bed. Upon my
return to the house I found Billy still up and poring over a book; but
he confessed to feeling sleepy, upon which I ordered the boy off to bed
forthwith and, extinguishing the lamp in the living-room, retired to my
own apartment and straightway turned in; being quickly lulled to sleep
by the sound of pouring rain that began just as I stretched myself upon
my bed.
It seemed as though I had only just fallen asleep when I awoke with
startling suddenness. The rain was pelting down on the roof in
torrents, making quite noise enough to account for my sudden awakening,
through which I could just hear poor Kit whining and fidgeting
restlessly under the veranda, outside my French window. Imagining that
it was these combined sounds that had awakened me, I rose, thinking:
"I must fetch that animal indoors. I expect the poor beggar is getting
pretty wet, hence his restlessness."
One of the doors of my room opened into the living-room, while the other
gave on to the veranda, both of them being wide open. As I passed
through the latter a vivid flash of lightning revealed the rain coming
straight down in sheets and rebounding in glittering spray off the
already streaming earth, with Kit straining at his leash, which Billy
had made fast as usual to one of the veranda posts. The beast had
withdrawn himself as far under the veranda as his leash would permit,
and he did not appear to be very wet; but he seemed anxious to enjoy the
more complete shelter of the living-room, so I stepped out and cast him
adrift.
To my amazement, the instant that I released him from his leash, he tore
himself away from my hold upon his collar and, with a savage snarl,
bounded through the living-room door. The next instant there issued
from the interior of the room a yell of consternation, immediately
followed by a shriek of terror, the fall of a heavy body on the floor,
screams, execrations, and the dreadful sound of Kit worrying somebody or
something; and before I could draw another breath the figure of a
yelling, screaming, frantic man dashed from the room, cleared the
veranda steps at a bound, landed heavily on the ground some five feet
below, and, still screaming, disappeared through the curtain of pouring
rain.
But the sounds from the living-room still continued with increasing
violence, augmented now by cries from Billy, whose form I dimly descried
outlined against the dark background of the open door; and a perception
of what had happened, and was still happening, leapt to my brain with
sudden enlightenment.
"Bring a light, Billy, quick!" I shouted, as I sprang through into the
living-room and, instinctively avoiding the table that stood in the
middle of the room, flung myself upon the struggling group on the floor.
My hands at once came into contact with Kit's hairy hide, and slid
along it until they closed upon the collar round his neck, when,
exerting all my strength, I dragged the beast, still savagely snarling
and resisting, off the writhing and groaning form at my feet. Somehow--
to this day I know not how--I managed to drag the fiercely struggling
creature out of the room and back to the veranda, where I securely tied
him up again. Then I returned to the living-room as Billy entered it
with a lighted lamp.
I took the lamp from him and said:
"Light the lamp in my room, boy, and then lend me a hand to put this man
on my bed."
I next turned to the writhing, groaning figure on the floor and saw
that, as I had already surmised, it was that of--Svorenssen! He was
dressed only in shirt and trousers, both of which, rain-sodden and
drenched with blood, were torn to rags by the teeth and claws of the
leopard, which was still raving outside and doing his utmost to break
adrift from his moorings. The man's injuries, especially about the
throat, shoulders, arms, and chest, were shocking; and I felt that, with
the limited appliances at our command, there was but very small hope of
saving his life. He still grasped in his right hand a formidable
bludgeon, and a similar weapon lay on the floor near him.
I had only time to take in these details when Billy returned, and
between us we contrived to half carry, half drag the writhing and
groaning Finn into my room and deposit him on my bed. I then sent Billy
to the natives' room, the occupants of which had been roused by the
disturbance, bidding him set them to work providing warm water and such
other matters as I thought I might require.
Guided by the book of instructions attached to the medicine-chest, I did
the best I could for the injured man; but his wounds were of so ghastly
a nature, and his suffering so acute, that I recognised from the very
outset, not only that it was impossible he should recover, but that
death must ensue in a very few hours. And it was dreadful to sit there
by his side, listening to his moans, liberally interspersed with curses
of the leopard, of me, and not infrequently of mankind in general, and
to reflect that that flood of blasphemy was issuing from the lips of a
man hovering on the brink of eternity! At length I could endure it no
longer, and I said to him, rather sharply, I am afraid:
"Stop that blasphemy, Svorenssen, for pity's sake, and rather turn your
thoughts to prayer--if you know how to pray. I fear that your life has
been a deplorably misspent one, and it can last but a few hours longer.
Before to-morrow's sun sets you will be face to face with God!
Therefore I urge you to devote the few remaining hours at your disposal
to making your peace with Him, instead of cursing those who have never
knowingly wronged you."
"What--d'ye--mean?" he gaspingly demanded. "I--ain't goin'--to--die--am
I?"
"Yes," I said, "you are; and it is well that you should know it.
Therefore, forget all your wrongs, real or imaginary, and--"
But here I was interrupted by an outburst of such vile and savage
profanity that it literally rendered me speechless. It lasted, I
suppose, fully ten minutes, and left its utterer gasping and in a state
of collapse. I administered stimulant, and at length the colour came
slowly back to the sufferer's cheeks and lips, and he opened his eyes.
For several minutes he lay there gazing up at me steadfastly,
questioningly; then he muttered:
"Thank 'e, Mister. If it hadn't been for you I'd have slipped my cable
that time. And so you think I'm goin' to die? Well, I'm beginnin' to
think so myself now. My God! it's awful to think that a few hours more
and I shall be face to face with my Maker, and bein' called to account
for a whole lifetime of wickedness. And there's no way out!"
"Oh, but there _is_," I said eagerly, and thereupon I began to expound,
with all the earnestness at my command, and as lucidly as I could, the
wonderful story of man's redemption. I got my Bible and read passage
after passage suited to the dying man's needs, until the expression of
terror and anxiety gradually faded from his features, and ultimately his
eyes closed and he seemed to fall asleep. Then the day dawned and
Billy, entering softly, took my place as watcher while I snatched a
brief hour or two of sleep on his bed.
I was aroused by the clatter of crockery in the living-room, where the
native women were making ready to serve breakfast--for even when the
shadow of Death hovers over a house its inmates must needs eat and
drink; and then one of the natives who every day came over to help with
the work on the cutter, brought the news that the sailing boat had
disappeared, the inference being that Van Ryn had taken her.
Nevertheless, I gave orders that Eden should be thoroughly searched for
him; but he was never found, nor was the boat, and that was the end of
him so far as we were concerned, for we never again heard of him.
When breakfast was ready I tiptoed to the door of my bedroom and
beckoned Billy, who crept softly out, closing the door behind him.
"He is asleep again now," the boy whispered; "but he is dying in peace;
and he wants to see you, Mr Blackburn, before he passes away, that he
may repeat to you the terrible confession that he has made to me."
We took breakfast in silence, for our minds were full of thoughts too
deep for utterance; and when we had finished I resumed my post beside
the dying man's bed. Svorenssen was still asleep--the sleep of utter
exhaustion; but he was very uneasy, and moaning occasionally. About
half an hour later, however, he awoke and, after I had again given him a
stimulant, he stammered and gasped the confession he desired to make.
There is no need to repeat it here word for word. In substance it was
to the effect that Van Ryn had proposed, and he had agreed, that they
two, obtaining entry through the back of the house, should murder me--in
my sleep if possible--arm themselves from the arms chest, and thereafter
impose their will upon poor Billy. The cutter was to be completed and
launched, the treasure shipped aboard her, and the conspirators, with
Billy as forced navigator, were to make their way to some civilised
port, arrived in sight of which, Billy was to be knocked on the head and
hove overboard--exactly as I had suspected--while the two men were to
divide the treasure equally between them. It was a dreadful confession
for a man to make; and I found it bitterly hard to utter the words of
forgiveness that were so piteously pleaded for, but I forced myself to
do so at last; and shortly after noon of that day the man, happy now
and, I believe, at peace with his Maker, passed away. We buried his
body an hour or two later.
With the death of one, and the disappearance of the other of the two men
who had come into our lives, only to act as a disturbing element from
almost the first moment of our acquaintance with them, all my worries
and anxieties passed away like the memory of an evil dream; and upon the
day following that of Svorenssen's death I turned with renewed zest to
the completion of the cutter. The hull was by this time practically
finished; her deck was laid, her companion and tiny self-emptying
cockpit completed, and all that was now needed was to run a low bulwark
around her, rig and step the completed mast and bowsprit, bend the
sails, ballast and launch her, get the stores, water, _and treasure_
aboard; and up anchor and away.
Taken as it stands, that list of work still remaining to be done looks
simple enough; yet it took me a full month to complete it, for the
greater part of it was of so technical a character that the natives were
of little assistance to me, and I had to do most of it with my own
hands. Also, I found that Van Ryn had by no means completed the task he
had undertaken to perform; the two topsails--square-header and jib-
header--still needed roping, as did the jib; and that work cost me
several days' labour to complete to my satisfaction. Then there were
the launching ways and the cradle to be built; and this task taxed my
ingenuity to its utmost limit; but at length all was done, except the
actual launching of the boat.
The finishing touches to my final preparations were completed too late
in the afternoon for us to do anything more that day. Immediately after
breakfast on the following morning, therefore, Billy and I climbed
aboard the cutter, hoisted the _Yorkshire Lass's_ ensign to her topmast
head, suspended a bottle of wine--one of the very few that we had left--
from her stem head, and then, leaving Billy aboard, I descended to the
ground, removing the ladder by which we had ascended. The wedging-up
having already been accomplished, I next took a maul and, shouting to
Billy to "stand by", proceeded to knock away the spur shores. There was
now a moment's hesitation on the part of the cutter, of which I took
advantage to jump clear; and then she began to move, slowly at first but
with rapidly increasing velocity, while I dashed the bottle of wine
against the craft's cut-water, and named her the _Dolphin_, in
accordance with Billy's earnestly expressed wish.
Two seconds later the craft took the water, plunging deeply with the
foam brimming to her taffrail; then, rising buoyantly, she shot far out
toward the middle of the cove until, in obedience to my hail, Billy let
go her anchor and brought her up. I then saw that I had underestimated
the amount of ballast required, and that she needed about half a ton
more, and a slight readjustment of it to put her in correct trim. That,
however, was an error that could be easily rectified; and meanwhile I
was highly gratified by the graceful appearance she presented, now that
she was afloat.
Next in order came a "cold collation" that I had caused to be prepared
for the delectation of Bowata and his petty chiefs, the whole of whom I
had invited over to Eden to witness the launch, and--Billy having been
brought ashore in the islanders' boat--we forthwith fell to, all hands
doing full justice to the feast. At its conclusion I formally presented
the bungalow and all that we were leaving in it to Bowata, with a strict
injunction to him and his to show the utmost kindness to any shipwrecked
persons who might hereafter be so unfortunate as to be cast away on the
group, an injunction which they all promised to obey most faithfully.
Then followed our mutual farewells, to the accompaniment of much howling
and weeping on the part of our black friends; after which the remainder
of the day was devoted to the completion of the ballasting of the cutter
and its correct adjustment.
There was but one other duty now to be done before we started for home,
and that was the disposal of Kit, the leopard. Since the night when he
so fearfully mauled Svorenssen the nature of the beast had undergone a
material change for the worse. He had developed an uncertainty and
ferocity of temper that rendered him distinctly unsafe and altogether
unsuitable as a pet for anyone. With grief and many tears poor Billy
was obliged to admit that such was the case; therefore it was at length
agreed that he should be transported to West Island, where he could hurt
no one, and where he would find ample prey for his sustenance;
accordingly, on the following morning we weighed anchor and bade a final
good-bye to our Pacific Eden, sailing through the East and North Island
Channels to West Island, where, without mishap, we landed Kit and turned
him adrift to shift for himself, not by any means without regret, for
the beast had stood us in good stead on one memorable occasion. Then,
sailing up North-west Channel, we entered the lagoon and, heading to the
northward, passed through the wide gap in the reef, abreast of Shark
Bay, and once more found ourselves riding buoyantly on the long swell of
the open Pacific.
Of course I had long ago given most careful consideration to the
question of where I should steer for, in the event of the cutter's
completion, and after much study of the charts at my command I had
decided to shape a course for Sydney, Australia. It meant a voyage of
some two thousand three hundred and fifty miles across the open ocean in
a ten-ton cutter, but I felt sure the _Dolphin_ could do it, especially
as we should have the south-east trade wind and the prospect of
reasonably fine weather with us nearly all the way. Accordingly, as
soon as we were fairly clear of the reef, I bore up and headed away to
the southward, along the west side of the group, of which we finally
lost sight about an hour before sunset.
To say that our voyage was unadventurous would be untrue; on the
contrary, we had many thrilling adventures and several hair-breadth
escapes from destruction, but lack of space forbids more than the bare
mention of them here. Let it suffice to say that, after a voyage packed
with sufficiently exciting incidents, we arrived safely in Sydney
harbour on the twenty-third day after our departure from the group.
Arrived there, my first business was to negotiate with a firm of bankers
for the exchange of some of the gold coinage, which formed part of our
treasure, for a sufficient number of British sovereigns to carry both of
us comfortably home, and, this done, we set about providing ourselves
with outfits suitable for the voyage. It was, of course, impossible for
us to keep our adventures entirely secret; a hint of them somehow got
abroad, possibly from the people in the hotel at which we put up, and
the enterprising reporters of the Sydney papers did the rest; one result
of which was that I soon got from a local yachtsman so advantageous an
offer for the _Dolphin_ that I unhesitatingly accepted it. We spent a
very pleasant fortnight in Sydney, many of its leading citizens vying
with each other to show us hospitality; finally, on a certain day in the
month of April we both embarked for England in an Orient liner, which,
after a most delightful voyage, landed us in London on a glorious day in
the month of May.
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