The School Friends Part 7

They soon lost sight of the s.h.i.+p, and the boat made her way across the dark water, the island not being yet visible ahead.

"Are they all dead, have none been spared?" asked Humphry at length, yet half fearing to speak on the subject which occupied his thoughts.

"I told you, Mr Gurton, to ask no questions," answered Ned in a hollow voice. "The sooner you put all thoughts of what happened last night out of your head the better. Just think of what you have got to do. You will have to keep your wits awake where you are going, depend on that.

I wish we could stop to help you, but we have promised to be back as soon as we have landed your things. All I can tell you is, that there is said to be water, and you will probably find cocoa-nut and bread-fruit trees, and other roots and fruits; and as we have put up lines and hooks, and a gun and ammunition, and a couple of harpoons, and lines for catching seals, it will be your fault if you do not manage to find as much food as you want."

"But how shall I be able to live all alone by myself on the island?"

said Humphry with a sigh.

"Better to be all alone than food for the sharks, I have a notion,"

observed one of the men who overheard him.

Humphry made no further remark. He now felt more than ever certain that a fearful tragedy had been enacted, and that he ought to be thankful to get out of the company of the perpetrators. Yet he was sorry to leave Hadow among them, for he had observed, he thought, the signs of something better in him than in his companions, rough and ignorant as he was.

As day dawned the island appeared ahead, rising out of the blue water with black rocks piled one upon another, and some hills of considerable elevation. Humphry observed also a deep sandy bay between the rocks, but an encircling coral reef intervened, over which, even on that calm morning, the sea broke in ma.s.ses of foam.

They pulled along till the bay opened out more clearly, and just in front was a cascade, which came tumbling down the rocks. A narrow piece of dark water was seen between the ma.s.ses of foam which danced up on either side of it.

"There is a pa.s.sage," exclaimed Ned. "Give way, my lads, and we shall get through it without difficulty."

The men bent to their oars, and the boat, das.h.i.+ng between the two walls of foam, was in a short time floating on the calm surface of a lagoon.

Pulling up the bay, they reached a small sandy beach, though the dark rocks which everywhere rose up around it gave the place a gloomy aspect.

The boat was hauled up, and the men quickly landed the various articles which Ned had secured for Humphry's benefit.

He and Humphry searching about soon found a level spot on one side of the bay where the ground looked capable of cultivation.

"This will do for you, my lad," said Ned. "And as I found some papers of seed in the captain's cabin, I put them into one of the casks; though I don't know what they are, maybe if you sow them they will come up, and supply you with vegetables."

The men now brought up all the things from the boat. They all wished him good luck and a happy life on the island, and then hurried back to the boat.

"I only wish I could stop with you, that I do!" exclaimed Ned with some feeling, as he wrung Humphry's hand. "I dare not say `G.o.d bless you!'

but I hope He will, that I do with all my heart," and Ned ran down to join his companions, who were already shoving off the boat. He would not have been sorry if they had gone without him.

Humphry watched them going down the bay. They pa.s.sed through the reef, and pulled out to sea till the boat was lost to sight, though he could distinguish the s.h.i.+p hove to in the offing waiting for her return.

CHAPTER FOUR.

Humphry sat down on his chest, feeling very forlorn. Here he was on a desert island, a mere speck in the ocean, hundreds of miles away perhaps from any place inhabited by civilised man. He might perhaps never be able to make his escape, or again hold intercourse with his fellow-creatures. All alone, without speaking, without exchanging an idea with another human being, he might have to drag out a weary existence; and then, should sickness overtake him, have to lie down and breathe out his life, leaving his bones to whiten in the sun.

He had read Robinson Crusoe, but then his case was very different to that of the far-famed voyager. Robinson Crusoe had the companions.h.i.+p of Friday, and his island was fertile and smiling, and he had goats and fowls and other animals to cheer him or to serve him as food. He would have to go in search of fish and birds for his daily food, and as yet was uncertain whether any were to be found, though at present he did not fear starvation, as he had the salted beef and pork and biscuits with which Ned had supplied him. But then when they were gone, how should he live?

"It won't do to indulge in these thoughts," he exclaimed to himself, suddenly starting up. "I must think about building a house in the first place; and then as soon as I can prepare the ground I will put in the seed, and, as I hope, some may produce good edible vegetables, I shall have a variety in diet and keep myself in health."

As he began to examine the articles which had been brought on sh.o.r.e, he found a large roll of canvas. It was part of an old sail.

"This Ned must have intended to serve as a tent till I can put up a more substantial building. I am much obliged to him, and I need not be in any great hurry about building my house."

He spoke his thoughts aloud on nearly all occasions. It gave him some relief to hear his own voice.

"I must get some poles for the tent, though; and no spars, I see, have been brought on sh.o.r.e."

He looked out an axe, and sticking it in his belt, set out to search for what he wanted.

"I shall not lose my way in this new kingdom of mine, that's one advantage in having it of moderate size; and if I climb to the top of the hill, I shall be able to sing with Robinson Crusoe, `I am lord of all I survey,'--ah, ah, ah!" and he laughed for the first time for many a day.

There was nothing to excite his risibility on board. He felt his spirits rising.

"Stay!" he exclaimed suddenly. "What an ungrateful wretch I am! Here have I been saved from a great danger, and placed in safety, at all events for the present, and yet I have not uttered one word of thanks to Him who has preserved me."

He knelt down, and lifted up his heart as well as he could to G.o.d.

"Careless, worthless fellow that I have been! yet G.o.d promises to hear all those that come to Him, not trusting to themselves or to their own good deeds, but to the perfect and complete atonement Jesus Christ made for their sins on the cross, so I know that He will hear me; and I am sure, though I am unworthy of His care, that He put it into the hearts of those men to bring me on sh.o.r.e instead of throwing me overboard, or what would have been worse, keeping me among them."

He felt his heart much lighter when he rose from his knees.

He then, carefully observing the appearance of the rocks, that he might find his way back without difficulty, proceeded on his expedition.

Clambering over them, he came to more level ground covered with various bushes, and soon reached a hill-side on which grew a number of trees, palms and others, with the names of which he was unacquainted. He looked in vain for cocoa-nuts, not being aware that the trees are only generally found on the level sh.o.r.e to which the nuts have been borne by the wind and tides of the ocean from other islands. He cut two stout poles for uprights, and a longer one for a ridge-pole, and shouldering them, returned to his camp.

"I shall want a fire, though," he thought, as he got back, and throwing them down he again set out to get fuel.

This he had no difficulty in finding among the brushwood, and with the aid of his axe he quickly made up a number of f.a.ggots.

"I shall not be obliged to have a fire burning all night to keep off wild beasts, that is another comfort," he observed. "But it will be cheerful to sit by when it grows dark. I shall not find the time hang heavily on my hands for some days to come, that's another comfort."

His first thought was to do the most necessary work. Having brought the f.a.ggots to his camp, he next put up his tent.

This accomplished, as soon as he sat down to rest he began to feel hungry. He rummaged in a small cask, which contained a number of miscellaneous articles, and discovered a tinder-box. He had soon a fire blazing in front of his tent. He had prudently made it up at a sufficient distance to prevent the risk of the flames reaching the canvas. While he stayed his hunger with some biscuit, he prepared a piece of beef, which he spitted and placed before the fire on two small sticks, such as he had read of people doing under similar circ.u.mstances.

He turned the meat on the spit, which grew blacker and blacker.

"I think it must be done now," he said at length, taking it off.

When he cut it with his knife, he found it almost as hard as wood. He attempted to eat a few mouthfuls, but he could scarcely get them down.

"This won't do," he said. "I must get some water, to enable me to swallow this dry food."

On searching for something to hold the water, he found a saucepan, and on his way with it to the cascade it occurred to him that he might have cooked his beef much better by boiling. "I must try that way for dinner," he thought.

A draught of pure water greatly refreshed him. He returned to the camp with his saucepan filled. He put it on at once with a small piece of meat in it, recollecting that salted beef requires a long time to boil, and he hoped to have better success in his second attempt at cooking.

He now made a survey of the articles his s.h.i.+pmates had left with him.

There was enough beef and pork to serve him for many months, but he regretted to find that the bread would not last him nearly so long.

"I must try and find some subst.i.tute for it," he said, "and economise it in the meantime. I would rather have had much more bread and less meat, as I hope to catch some fish and kill some birds. However, I need not go hunting till I have put my home to rights."

Then he thought of his seeds. He had no spade, however, to dig the ground; so going to the wood he shaped one, which he hoped would answer the purpose, out of the stem of a small tree. It did better than nothing, but he would have been very glad of an iron spade. He at once began to dig up the ground. It was covered thickly with gra.s.s with long roots, but the soil was rather sand than earth. "I must dig all this up," he said, "or they will soon sprout up again, and destroy the seed."

So he marked out a small plot, carefully throwing the roots and gra.s.s into a heap. It then struck him that if they were scattered about on the ground in the sun they would more quickly dry, and he might then burn them, and the ashes would contribute to fertilise the ground.

He worked away till he felt quite weary. He then went back to his fire to see how the beef was boiling. As it was not yet done, after resting a short time he returned to his digging. It was a very long operation, but after labouring for four or five hours he found that he had dug up almost ten square yards of ground. "It is thoroughly done, though there is not much of it, and that's a satisfaction," he said. He thought, however, even when the ashes of the gra.s.s were mixed with it, it would scarcely be sufficiently fertile for the seeds. "I will go into the woods and collect rotten leaves, and with the ashes of my fire I hope in time to make the soil good." This was a wise thought, but the sun was already getting low, and he determined to wait till the next day to do so. "It will be better to have a small piece of good ground than to dig up the whole plot, and I will only put in a few seeds at first, to see how they answer; so that if some fail, I may try a different way of cultivating them. I shall, at all events, have work enough. How sad it would have been if I had had nothing to do but to sit still and bemoan my hard fate. I may not, after all, find my life so miserable alone as I had expected, that's another comfort."