Palm Tree Island Part 16

We had been putting our place in order while we talked thus, and then we had our breakfast, eating indeed some of the food which the men had been preparing when we drove them away. And after we had done our customary morning's work--fed the pigs and fowls, gathered ripe cocoa-nuts, and so forth--we set to work at once to make some new arrows and spears, and bows and strings also, in case the others broke; and all the while we were doing this, Billy talked very bravely about the great fight there would be if the rascals came back. I said nothing to damp his ardour, but my thoughts were very busy with a part of the subject which he seemed not to consider, namely, what we should do if it came to anything like a regular siege. I did not doubt we could do much execution among the enemy from behind our walls if they stood to be shot at; but they could very well avoid this, and since there would be many of them against us two, they could strictly blockade us; and though so far as food went we could defy them for a long time, having our concealed stores below, yet the need for constant watchfulness, day and night, would in a short time wear us out. When I asked Billy what we should do in that case, he said, "Why, run out, and let 'em chase us; we could dodge them big chaps well enough, and I reckon we can run a deal faster." It was easy enough to show him that the hunted life we should lead would be most wretched and precarious; but he having suggested that we might escape set me on thinking whether we might not indeed elude the enemy, at least for such time as was needful to find some defence or shelter.

We had, of course, the means of descending into our cavern; and this was so well stocked with food that we might live there for a long time; but our disappearance would immediately be discovered by our besiegers (so I called them in advance), and they would know our whereabouts the moment they entered the hut. The cavern, therefore, could not be a permanent habitation. But it came into my mind again that we had never thoroughly explored the tunnel leading from it, nor found whether it had an outlet, though we suspected it had; and I thought that if there was such an outlet, or if we could make one, our case would not be so hopeless as at the present time it seemed. Accordingly, we determined to descend into the cavern, and make another exploration, going together, as we did the last time, both for the company's sake and for better security in case of encountering any danger. So we heaved up the covering of the shaft, and having made half-a-dozen torches, enough to last us for several hours, we went down, leaving Little John on guard, pa.s.sed through the cavern, and came into the low and narrow pa.s.sage.

[Sidenote: Adventure in the Cave]

When we arrived at the place where the second pa.s.sage entered this from the right, we turned into it, and walked up an ascent, as I had done in the darkness, until the floor suddenly took a dip downwards, and then by the light of our torch we saw a considerable pool of water, extending farther than the light would carry. We debated for a little whether we should attempt to wade through this, and concluded that we would not do so until we had failed to find a way out in the other direction. Accordingly we retraced our steps, and went down the tunnel, until we came to the wider part where on our last visit we had seen water. The water was lower than it had been then, and we were able to go farther, and when we came to the brink of it, we heard very distinctly the sound of waves rolling in, so that we knew we could not be far from an opening to the sea. And, indeed, peering across the immense cave to which we had come, we saw far off a segment of blue sky, and knew that the object of our search was gained.

We stood at the edge of the water, surveying the cave by the light of our torches. We saw that there depended from its roof certain s.h.i.+ning things like icicles, of rugged form and differing in length, which I have since learned are called stalact.i.tes; and, moreover, there were large boulders and ma.s.ses of broken stalact.i.tes standing up out of the water. Billy gave a shout when he saw this, and cried that he would skip from rock to rock until he came to the mouth of the cave, and defied me to race him; but the torch I was carrying was now burning low, and I stayed to kindle another before going farther; and, moreover, I doubted the wisdom of such feats of agility, for it would be easy to miss one's footing and fall into the water, and if we both did it our torches would be wetted and we should not be able to light ourselves home. I had, indeed, just called out to him to come back, when a dreadful shriek ran through the cavern, and raising my torch above my head, I saw Billy scrambling up a tall and rugged rock that stood ten feet or more above the water, a good way from where I stood.

He had dropped his torch, and I saw him but dimly by the light of mine, and could not discern any cause for his terror; but that there must be a very great cause I knew well, for Billy was brave enough. He continued to shriek and call, though his voice rang so in that hollow vaulted s.p.a.ce that I could not at first make out any words; but having started to approach him when I heard his first cry, going from rock to rock as quickly as I could, I was presently able to see a number of long tentacles clinging to the rock on which he was perched, and others waving horribly above the surface of the water, as if some blind creature were groping for its prey. And even as there came to my mind the recollection of that loathly monster from whom I myself had barely escaped, and I stood as if fascinated by those hideous antic limbs, I saw the vast bulk of the beast appear above the surface, and rise gradually behind its tentacles up the rock.

Billy was by this time perched on the very summit of the rock, and when he saw the monster ascending towards him he let forth another dreadful cry which roused me from the sort of trance into which I had fallen.

Grasping the torch with my left hand and my axe with my right, I leapt over the low rocks that stood between me and Billy, scarcely keeping my footing, and began to hack with all my strength at the shapeless ma.s.s, which made such a resistance to that poor clumsy axehead as a thing of leather might make. It did not appear that my strokes were of any avail, for the tentacles crept higher and higher; and looking up when I heard another scream from Billy, I saw that one of them was beginning to twine itself about his leg. And then all of a sudden, while I was bringing my axe down once more on the monster, Billy made a leap upwards, to catch at a stalact.i.te that depended from the roof of the vault, not far from his head. He must have been pretty near beside himself to do what he did, for if he had caught hold of it he could not have held on long; and what did in fact happen was that the stalact.i.te broke off with a sharp snap, and down came Billy and it into the water.

I thought this might be the best thing that could happen, for he could swim like a fish, and the monster would take some time in letting itself down from the rock; but when Billy rose to the surface, and I called to him, I saw by his feeble movements that he must have been hurt, so I sprang to a low rock near which he had come up, and held out my axe for him to grasp, which he did, and so I got him on to the rock, though not without some trouble, it being scarce broad enough for both of us. And immediately afterwards I observed that the monster had left the big rock and disappeared into the water, on which I cried to Billy to be of good cheer, because I was sure my continual chopping had wrought some damage on the monster and maybe killed it. But the words were scarce out of my mouth when we saw, by the ruddy light of my torch, a tentacle appear above the water not three feet away. This put me in a shudder lest we were in a perfect den of the creatures, and I called to Billy to jump across the rocks, if he could, back to the entrance to the tunnel, so that he at any rate, being now the weaker, might be out of harm's way. His terror lending him strength, he gathered himself together and leapt from rock to rock as he had done before, while I seized upon the axe which I had dropped beside me when I landed on the rock, and chopped away in a kind of frenzy at the tentacles which were brandis.h.i.+ng themselves, you may say, at several places around me. As soon as I saw that Billy was safe I gave up the contest and sprang after him, and I was never so thankful in my life as I was when I stood beside him at the end of the tunnel.

We were neither of us in any mind to linger there, lest the monster and his brood came to attack us, for we were now so terrified that we would have believed them capable of anything. This was the second time that we had been baulked of finding an outlet to the sea, and our experience had been such that we should scarce attempt it again. We hurried back through the tunnel, and had not gone very far when we had another alarm, for whereas it had been dry when we descended, there was now a little stream of water running down, which increased as we advanced until it became almost a rivulet. At first I thought that the plug had come out of the pipe leading from the lake into the shaft, but when we came to the junction of the two pa.s.sages, we saw that the water, which was now above our ankles, was pouring out of the right-hand pa.s.sage, and not from the one that led from the cavern. This eased our alarm, but we did not stay to consider of any attempt to discover the ultimate source of this little torrent, but hastened on until we were once more in our hut; and then we knew by the mighty pattering on the roof and all around that a very heavy rain was falling. Indeed, when we opened the door we saw that it must have been raining ever since we departed, for the ground was exceeding sodden, and the trench about the hut was half full of water, being scarce deep enough to carry off the drainage.

Of course the rain had put out the fire which we kept constantly smouldering in the grate a few feet from our door, and though a hot meal would have been very comforting after our fright and the wetting we had got, we could not make one ready, because we had no dry wood in the hut, nor indeed did we care to light a fire in it, having no chimney to let out the smoke.

[Sidenote: A Mystery Solved]

It continued raining for two or three days, greatly to our discomfort; and we made up our minds to two things: first, to have a stock of firewood ready dried; second, to build ourselves a better grate, which we could cover in with pottery ware, and thus prevent the fire from being ever extinguished. During these days we observed, as we had done before, that the lake did not rise above the high-water mark, though the rain was the heaviest since we had been on the island; and when I sought once more to account for this, and remembered the torrent pouring down the pa.s.sage, it came all of a sudden into my mind that I had the true reason of it. The pa.s.sage, as I have said, rose continually from the cave inwards. Well, I guessed that its upper end opened into the side of the lake, but it then rose until its highest point was pretty nearly on a level with what we called the high-water mark, and after that descended again. If it was so, it acted as a siphon, the water not flowing down the pa.s.sage until the lake rose to the same height as the highest part of the pa.s.sage. When I tried to explain this to Billy he said it was all gammon, because if there was an opening from the lake into the pa.s.sage the water would keep on flowing through until it couldn't help but run over. He could not in the least understand that water could never rise above its own level until I showed him by means of two tanks made of pottery, one large and the other small, and then he owned that I might be right, though he said it seemed to him like saying that a ten-pound weight wouldn't send up a five-pound weight if they were put in the opposite pans of a balance.

However, my discovery (supposing my reasoning was correct, and we could not prove it)--my discovery, I say, was of no practical advantage to us, indeed, rather the reverse, for it seemed to show that the tunnel from the cavern to the sea might be sometimes impa.s.sable, so that as a way of retreat from our hut it was doubly useless. When I pointed this out to Billy he said, "Never mind, master. We shall only have to fight all the harder inside, that's all," which shows how hopeful he always was. The only comfort I had was to think that our fears and anxieties might never be justified, and that Hoggett and his crew would never more visit us.

CHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH

OF THE a.s.sAULT ON THE HUT, IN WHICH BOWS AND ARROWS PROVE SUPERIOR TO MUSKETS

The period of rainy weather which we suffered set me on to think again of that project of digging a moat which we had formerly abandoned.

Several considerable rivulets flowed into the lake from the high ground around, of which one, that came down the slope nearest the red rock, had a pretty long course, and by the time it fell into the lake, forty or fifty yards from the hut, was almost a river. Observing how it washed the soil along with it, it came into my head that we might perchance enlist it in our service, and make it do a great part of the work of widening and deepening the trench. Of course Billy must ask his customary question, "What's the good?" following this up with another, more pertinent. "How _can_ we, master? The river--if you call it a river: _I_ don't--don't run anywhere near the trench."

"That's true," I said, "but we can make it."

"How's that?" said he.

"Why, by building a dam across it, and so turning its course where we please," I said.

"Oh, more building," says he. "What a one you are, master, for keeping on a-doing things! What's the good? I lay you a cocoa-nut that before you get your dam made, the rain stops, and then where'll you be?"

I think I have already shown that Billy was always a good deal better than his word. He used to remind me of that young man in the Scripture, who refused when his father bid him do something, but "afterwards repented and went," and was more to be admired than the plausible sneak, his brother, who said to his father, "I go, sir," and then did nothing of the sort. I once told Billy about this, and he was very much interested, never having heard it before, and said he'd like to know that man, and asked me if I could tell him any more things like that. Accordingly I told him at different times all that I could remember of the Bible stories, and the one he liked best was the story of David, who took his admiration greatly, and whom he always called "the little fellow," thinking of Goliath.

However, to return to our dam. Billy helped me very diligently to pile up a dam of rocks, which was pretty laborious, for we had to haul them a good distance, and since it rained all the time we were constantly drenched, and I wonder we did not take an ague. We were about three days in doing it, and then, sure enough, as soon as it was done, the rain ceased, and Billy turned a triumphant countenance upon me, and asked what I thought of that. But I had the better of him next day, for the rain came again, and we saw with great delight that the stream was diverted by the dam into the narrow channel we had cut to bring it to our trench, and before long it was flowing through this in considerable volume, and fell into the lake. It n.o.bly answered my expectations, for the loosened earth was not only more easy for us to dig with our rude spades, but it became mud as soon as it was dug up, and was washed away. We began to deepen the trench into a moat at the two ends opening on the lake, working backwards to the middle; but before we had done very much the rain ceased again, and the rivulet dried up. However, we were fairly come to the wettest part of the year, and the rainy days were more than the fine ones, so that in the course of a few months we had made good progress, and had indeed widened and deepened the whole trench, though not near so much as I should have liked. The part directly in front of our door was the deepest, and we made a kind of drawbridge, of the nature of a hurdle, to throw over it; not at this time, however, attempting any contrivance for raising or lowering it.

[Sidenote: On the Watch]

Though we went about our daily work with great regularity, we were never, I think, quite so cheerful as we had been before the visit of our whilom s.h.i.+pmates. The thought that they might come back kept us continually on the stretch, so to speak; we went up to our watch-tower, one or other of us, not twice a day, as before, but three or four times, and we never went to bed at night without an uneasy feeling that when we awoke we might find our enemies upon us. For several nights, indeed, Billy and I took turns to watch, though we soon gave it up, partly because it was so fatiguing, and partly because, when we considered of it calmly, we thought it very unlikely that the men would arrive in the darkness, for, not knowing the coast, they might very easily run upon a rock and lose their boat, a calamity which they would not risk.

One day, I know not how many months after we had scared away Hoggett and his friends, Billy had gone up Flagstaff Hill to take his turn at looking out, and he came running to tell me that he had descried a small object on the eastern horizon. I immediately accompanied him back to the station, and when we got there, he told me that the object was scarce any bigger than when he first saw it, so that if it was a boat, which we could not yet determine, it was moving very slowly. The day was very hot, so that no one would wish to put forth any great exertion, least of all the crew of the _Lovey Susan_. We watched for a long time until we made out that the object was indeed a boat, and moving with oars alone, there being not a capful of wind. It was heading straight for our island, and we saw that it was a s.h.i.+p's boat of European make, and not a native canoe, so that we had no doubt it contained Hoggett and his fellows.

"Let's try and scare 'em with the fizzy rock," said Billy; but though we raised a dense cloud of smoke by this means the boat held on its course, and we saw that this device at least had lost its terrors.

"I wish Old Smoker would wake up," says Billy. "Wouldn't I like to go down and poke up his fire, that's all! Or to blow it up with bellows would be better still."

I could not help thinking it a little unlucky that the mountain-top had been for some time clear of smoke, which, indeed, was perhaps the reason why the men had ventured once more to make the voyage. Finding our stratagem of no avail, we ran down to the hut to put it, so far as we might, in a posture of defence, judging by the slow progress of the boat that we should have time. We took several of the fowls and one pig into the house, unwelcome inmates though they were; the rest of the pigs we let loose, taking our chance of recovering them later; we saw that our bows had sound strings, and laid our arrows in readiness; and then we returned to Flagstaff Hill, to watch the boat. Our own canoe, I had almost forgot to say, lay in the little retired cove on the east side of the island.

[Sidenote: Return of the Crew]

When the boat drew near to our coast, we lost sight of it, and could not tell where the men would land; but we guessed that they would make for the little bay on the south-west, where the landing was certainly the easiest. Accordingly we hastened towards that spot, and having got to the cliffs we saw the boat at some little distance from the sh.o.r.e, so as to avoid shoals or rocks, as we guessed, and going in the very direction we had surmised. When they were opposite the bay they pulled the boat's head round, and came in very well, and running her ash.o.r.e, landed, all but two men whom they left in the boat to guard her. I saw with great apprehension that the rest of the party were armed, some with muskets, others with cutla.s.ses and other weapons, which they had taken into the boats when they left the _Lovey Susan_. And, moreover, there were more men than had come before. They mounted the cliff more briskly than I had expected to see them do it, and when we perceived, ourselves being hidden all the time, that they were making a bee-line, as people say, for our hut, we immediately made all speed back, lifted the drawbridge when we had crossed the moat, and took it with us into the hut, where we set up the door, and pulled out the plugs from a good many loopholes in the walls, both that we might have a little light, and also to be in readiness to defend ourselves.

Through the loopholes we spied the men presently, coming towards us from the high ground between us and the cliffs. "They are coming mighty fast," says Billy. "Won't they sweat! What's the hurry, I wonder?" Their pace was indeed more rapid than I should have chosen on so hot a day. They were coming straight towards the house; but all on a sudden all but one of them turned aside into the wood on their right hand, and while we were wondering why they had gone out of their course, we saw some of them swarm up the cocoa-nut palms that were on the fringe of the wood, and knock down the fruit to their comrades below, who immediately broke them open and quaffed the liquor.

"Them's our cocoa-nuts, master," says Billy, with indignation.

"They're poaching."

But I paid no heed to him, being intent on watching the one man who had not swerved from the course with the others, but came straight on. It was Hoggett. I observed that he looked about him with great curiosity as he came nearer, and having reached the edge of the trench he stood and pulled at his beard, looking this way and that like a man that is puzzled. It was plain he saw that the appearance of the place was somewhat altered since he saw it before, and from the glances he cast at the hut I thought he seemed to question whether there was any one in it or not.

[Sidenote: Hoggett]

"Shall I shoot him, master?" says Billy eagerly in my ear. I own I was tempted to say yes, for we could have killed him easily, he being but a few yards away, and the loss of their leader would very likely have so much daunted the others that they would have withdrawn themselves. But I could not bring myself to take him thus unawares, nor indeed did I wish to be the first to open hostilities, so I bade Billy hold his hand; and immediately afterwards Hoggett hailed us in seaman's fas.h.i.+on.

"Ahoy there!" says he, and putting my mouth to the loophole I shouted "Ahoy!" back, and we laughed to see the start he gave, though if he hadn't expected an answer, why did he shout, as Billy said. But if he was startled it was only for a moment, for he lifted up his voice, which was a very boisterous one, and with many oaths bade me to come out, calling me by name, and when I refused he cursed me again, uttering terrible threats of what he would do to me if I did not immediately obey him. The others, hearing the shouts, left the wood and came straggling up, and when they called to Hoggett to know what he was about, he shouted that the rat was trapped, at which Billy could contain himself no longer, but called out, "Don't you be so sure of that, you thieving villain!"

"So there's two of you, is there?" shouts the man, who had not known up to this moment that more than one was in the hut, and then he unslung his musket, and, taking good aim, fired through the loophole at which I had been speaking, which he could very easily do, the range being so short. But of course his taking aim had given me time to slip away, and the slug pa.s.sed clean through the hut, doing no damage, but merely striking the wall on the other side, and setting Little John barking furiously. I was somewhat amazed that after all these years the men had any powder and shot left, and considered that they must have husbanded their stock with remarkable care. However, I did not lose any time in replying to Hoggett, but went to a loophole near the roof, which was pretty well concealed on the outside by the thatch that overhung the wall an inch or two; and standing on the little platform beneath it I fitted an arrow to my bow and let fly, aiming to hit the fellow's shoulder, for I was loath to take his life. It happened that just as I shot he s.h.i.+fted his posture, so that the shaft, instead of striking his shoulder as I intended, transfixed his forearm; whereupon he dropped his musket with a howl as much of rage as of pain, I think, and pulled out the arrow, while the rest of the men, who had plainly not looked for anything of this sort, instantly took to their heels and ran until they were out of range. Hoggett was a man of sterner mettle, and held his ground, shaking his fist at the hut, and vowing with horrible imprecations that he would have his revenge. Billy was fingering his bow very restlessly, and asked me if he might shoot now, but I would not let him, for at present we were in no danger; so Hoggett, having picked up his musket, was suffered to go and rejoin his comrades, which he did at length, stopping at every few yards to hurl more curses at us. Then they stood in a group at the edge of the wood, and seemed to take counsel together.

"Wabberley ain't so fat, master," says Billy all of a sudden.

I owned that he had fallen away somewhat.

"And Chick's pretty near a skellington," Billy goes on. "And Pumfrey----" He broke off, then cried, "Why, master, I do believe they're famished."

[Sidenote: The Interlopers]

Indeed, having leisure now to observe the mariners more carefully than it had been possible to do before, I saw that they were all very woebegone in appearance, and not at all equal to what they had been.

They talked together for some time, and there did not seem to be perfect agreement among them, for they grew very heady, and their gestures began to be so violent that we looked for them to come to blows, and Billy was delighted at the prospect of seeing them fight.

The chief parts in their discourse were taken by Wabberley and Hoggett, and I saw the former point more than once towards the mountain, which, as I have said, was clear that day. We could not even guess at the subject of their deliberation, but presently the group broke up, and the men went severally in different directions, and quite disappeared from our view. We durst not leave the hut to follow them, lest they were practising a trick on us, to entice us forth; and so we remained for the rest of that day in a miserable state of uncertainty, not knowing whether they had sailed away, or what they were doing.

However, when it began to be dark, we saw through the trees towards the cliffs the glow of a fire, and guessed that they were camping; and not long afterwards Little John growled, and then we heard the squeal of a pig, by which we guessed that some of the pigs we had turned a-loose had come back to their sty, and one had fallen a victim, which we were quite unable to prevent. But as soon as it was full dark I thought it pretty safe to go forth and spy out what they were doing, so I straitly charged Billy to keep a good watch, and went out, creeping along very stealthily by the edge of the wood as long as I could, until I came to a place where I could easily see the men. They were, as I expected, sitting around the fire eating their supper, and there came to my nostrils the savorous odour of roast pork. I wished I could draw near enough to them to hear what they said, but this I durst not do, because the top of the cliff here was pretty open, so after a little I went back to the hut, and we had our own supper, and then settled on what we should do for keeping guard during the night.

[Sidenote: The Mariners Depart]

Neither of us had much sleep, for when our turn of watching was done, we were uneasy at the chance of being attacked in the darkness, and so slept but fitfully. However, nothing happened to alarm us, and in the morning when we looked forth we could see none of the men, and supposed that they were either still asleep or had already gone a-hunting their breakfast. But when the sun rose in the heavens and we had not yet seen a man of them, we fell into that same uneasiness that we had felt before, until I could endure it no longer, but resolved to sally out and see what had become of our visitors. I told Billy to be ready to pull the drawbridge from the moat if he should see any of the men approaching, and when he asked how I should get over if the bridge was gone I told him not to worry about me, because, knowing the island as I did, I could find some remote spot, and hard of access, if I should be pursued. Accordingly, I left the hut, but instead of going directly towards the cliffs, I made my course at first towards the mountain, intending to make a circuit and so come near the place where I had last seen the men. But I had not gone above half the distance when, looking over the sea, I was beyond measure amazed to see the boat departing under sail and oars, only instead of returning to the eastward, whence it had come, it was going westward. It was soon hidden from my sight by the shape of the cliffs, but I made great haste to go up to our watch-tower, whence there was a view all round the island, and perceived with as much puzzlement as joy that our enemies were in very truth sailing clean away, and not merely cruising about the coast, as I thought might be their design. I watched until the boat was almost out of sight, and then went back to the hut to acquaint Billy with our surprising good fortune. He immediately asked me whether I had counted the men, and when I said that I had not thought of doing so, and besides the boat was already too far off when I saw it, he cried, "Then I take my davy 'tis a trick, and they have left some behind to trap us." This fairly startled me, for such a notion had not come into my head; and though I thought it unlikely that the boat would have gone so far if the men's intention had been to return, yet I saw it was needful we should be still on our guard. However, when half the day was gone and we had seen never a sign of the men, but on the contrary some of our pigs came back and entered their sty like wanderers returning home, we thought it was ridiculous to be scared at mere fancies, and resolved to set forth and see if any man had indeed been left. We took our bows and arrows, and our axes in our belts, and went abroad very valiantly, yet with caution; but though we spent the rest of the day in searching the island, we found no man, nor indeed any trace at all of the seamen's visit save their camp fire and signs of cooking, and also a jack-knife, which one of them had without question left by mistake.

When we were pretty well a.s.sured that we were still alone on the island, we debated together what had brought the men back to our sh.o.r.e, and why they had so soon gone again, especially after Hoggett had been wounded and had uttered such terrible threats of vengeance.

"What could they do, master?" says Billy. "They couldn't conquer us so long as we stayed in the hut, and they couldn't starve us out, because they'd have starved first; and 'tis my belief that, what with the trees having no fruits to speak of, and Old Smoker, and the griping water of Brimstone Lake, they considered this island to be an uncomfortable sort of place, and so sheered off."

[Sidenote: Story of the Mariners]