Swiss Family Robinson Part 25

The leaves seemed so pliable and strong, that I examined them to see to what further use they might be put. Their tissue was composed of long silky fibres. A sudden thought struck me--this must be New Zealand flax. I could not rest till I had announced this invaluable discovery to my wife. She was no less delighted than I was.

'Bring me the leaves!' she exclaimed. 'Oh, what a delightful discovery! No one shall now be clothed in rags; just make me a spindle, and you shall soon have s.h.i.+rts and stockings and trousers, all good homespun! Quick, Fritz, and bring your mother more leaves!'

We could not help smiling at her eager zeal; but Fritz and Ernest sprang on their steeds, and soon the onager and buffalo were galloping home again, each laden with a great bundle of flax. The boys dismounted and deposited their offering at their mother's feet.

'Capital!' she exclaimed. 'I shall now show you that I am not at all behindhand in ingenuity. This must be retted, carded, spun and woven, and then with scissors, needle and thread I will make you any article of clothing you choose.'

We decided that Flamingo Marsh would be the best spot for the operation of steeping or 'retting' the flax, and next morning we set out thither; the cart drawn by the a.s.s, and laden with the bundles, between which sat Franz and Knips, while the rest of us followed with spades and hatchets.

I described to my boys as we went along the process of retting, and explained to them how steeping the flax leaves destroys the useless membrane, while the strong fibres remain.

As we were employed in making beds for the flax and placing it in them, we observed several nests of the flamingo. These are most curiously and skilfully made of glutinous clay, so strong that they can neither be overturned nor washed away. They are formed in the shape of blunted cones, and placed point downwards; at the upper and broader end is built a little platform to contain the eggs, on which the female bird sits, with her long legs in the water on either side, until the little birds are hatched and can take to the water.

For a fortnight we left the flax to steep, and then taking it out and drying it thoroughly in the sun, stored it for future use at Falconhurst.

Daily did we load our cart with provisions to be brought to our winter-quarters: manioc, potatoes, cocoanuts, sweet acorns, sugar-canes, were all collected and stored in abundance--for grumbling thunder, lowering skies, and sharp showers warned us that we had no time to lose. Our corn was sowed, our animals housed, our provisions stored, when down came the rain.

To continue in our nest we found impossible, and we were obliged to retreat to the trunk, where we carried such of our domestic furniture as might have been injured by the damp. Our dwelling was indeed crowded: the animals and provisions below, and our beds and household goods around us, hemmed us in on every side; by degrees, by dint of patience and better packing, we obtained sufficient room to work and lie down in; by degrees, too, we became accustomed to the continual noise of the animals and the smell of the stables.

The smoke from the fire, which we were occasionally obliged to light, was not agreeable; but in time even that seemed to become more bearable.

To make more s.p.a.ce, we turned such animals as we had captured, and who therefore might be imagined to know how to s.h.i.+ft for themselves, outside during the daytime, bringing them under the arched roots only at night. To perform this duty Fritz and I used to sally forth every evening, and as regularly every evening did we return soaked to the skin.

To obviate this, my wife, who feared these continual wettings might injure our health, contrived waterproofs: she brushed on several layers of caoutchouc over stout s.h.i.+rts, to which she attached hoods; she then fixed to these duck trousers, and thus prepared for each of us a complete waterproof suit, clad in which we might brave the severest rain.

In spite of our endeavours to keep ourselves busy, the time dragged heavily. Our mornings were occupied in tending the animals; the boys amused themselves with their pets, and a.s.sisted me in the manufacture of carding-combs and a spindle for their mother. The combs I made with nails, which I placed head downwards on a sheet of tin about an inch wide; holding the nails in their proper positions I poured solder round their heads to fix them to the tin, which I then folded down on either side of them to keep them perfectly firm.

In the evening, when our room was illuminated with wax candles, I wrote a journal of all the events which had occurred since our arrival in this foreign land; and, while my wife was busy with her needle and Ernest making sketches of birds, beasts and flowers with which he had met during the past months, Fritz and Jack taught little Franz to read.

Week after week rolled by. Week after week saw us still close prisoners. Incessant rain battered down above us, constant gloom hung over the desolate scene.

Chapter 9

The winds at length were lulled, the sun shot his brilliant rays through the riven clouds, the rain ceased to fall--spring had come. No prisoners set at liberty could have felt more joy than we did as we stepped forth from our winter abode, refreshed our eyes with the pleasant verdure around us, and our ears with the merry songs of a thousand happy birds, and drank in the pure balmy air of spring.

Our plantations were thriving vigorously. The seed we had sown was shooting through the moist earth. All nature was refreshed.

Our nest was our first care: filled with leaves and broken and torn by the wind, it looked indeed dilapidated. We worked hard, and in a few days it was again habitable. My wife begged that I would now start her with the flax, and as early as possible I built a drying-oven, and then prepared it for her use; I also, after some trouble, manufactured a beetle-reel and spinning-wheel, and she and Franz were soon hard at work, the little boy reeling off the thread his mother spun.

I was anxious to visit Tentholm, for I feared that much of our precious stores might have suffered. Fritz and I made an excursion thither. The damage done to Falconhurst was as nothing compared to the scene that awaited us. The tent was blown to the ground, the canvas torn to rags, the provisions soaked, and two casks of powder utterly destroyed. We immediately spread such things as we hoped yet to preserve in the sun to dry.

The pinnace was safe, but our faithful tub-boat was dashed in pieces, and the irreparable damage we had sustained made me resolve to contrive some safer and more stable winter-quarters before the arrival of the next rainy season. Fritz proposed that we should hollow out a cave in the rock, and though the difficulties such an undertaking would present appeared almost insurmountable, I yet determined to make the attempt; we might not, I thought, hew out a cavern of sufficient size to serve as a room, but we might at least make a cellar for the more valuable and perishable of our stores.

Some days afterwards we left Falconhurst with the cart laden with a cargo of spades, hammers, chisels, pickaxes and crowbars, and began our undertaking. On the smooth face of the perpendicular rock I drew out in chalk the size of the proposed entrance, and then, with minds bent on success, we battered away.

Six days of hard and incessant toil made but little impression; I do not think that the hole would have been a satisfactory shelter for even Master Knips; but we still did not despair, and were presently rewarded by coming to softer and more yielding substance; our work progressed, and our minds were relieved.

On the tenth day, as our persevering blows were falling heavily, Jack, who was working diligently with a hammer and crowbar, shouted:

'Gone, father! Fritz, my bar has gone through the mountain!'

'Run round and get it,' laughed Fritz, 'perhaps it has dropped into Europe--you must not lose a good crowbar.'

'But, really, it is through; it went right through the rock; I heard it crash down inside. Oh, do come and see!' he shouted excitedly.

We sprang to his side, and I thrust the handle of my hammer into the hole he spoke of; it met with no opposition, I could turn it in any direction I chose. Fritz handed me a long pole; I tried the depth with that. Nothing could I feel. A thin wall, then, was all that intervened between us and a great cavern.

With a shout of joy, the boys battered vigorously at the rock; piece by piece fell, and soon the hole was large enough for us to enter. I stepped near the aperture, and was about to make a further examination, when a sudden rush of poisonous air turned me giddy, and shouting to my sons to stand off, I leaned against the rock.

When I came to myself I explained to them the danger of approaching any cavern or other place where the air has for a long time been stagnant.

'Unless air is incessantly renewed it becomes vitiated,' I said, 'and fatal to those who breathe it. The safest way of restoring it to its original state is to subject it to the action of fire; a few handfuls of blazing hay thrown into this hole may, if the place be small, sufficiently purify the air within to allow us to enter without danger.' We tried the experiment. The flame was extinguished the instant it entered. Though bundles of blazing gra.s.s were thrown in, no difference was made.*

* What actually happens is that the oxygen supply becomes low. If there is sufficient oxygen to maintain a flame, the action of the flame increases air circulation, which then brings in more oxygen. The flame goes out if the oxygen supply is insufficient for its supply; in this case, it takes the fireworks to create adequate circulation. The next torch is able to blaze not because the air is purified, but because the oxygen is now sufficient to feed the fire.

I saw that we must apply some more efficacious remedy, and sent the boys for a chest of signal-rockets we had brought from the wreck. We let fly some dozens of these fiery serpents, which went whizzing in and disappeared at apparently a vast distance from us. Some flew like radiant meteors round, lighted up the mighty circ.u.mference and displayed, as by a magician's wand, a sparkling glittering roof. They looked like avenging dragons driving a foul malignant fiend out of a beauteous palace.

We waited for a little while after these experiments, and I then again threw in lighted hay. It burned clearly; the air was purified.

Fritz and I enlarged the opening, while Jack, springing on his buffalo, thundered away to Falconhurst to bear the great and astonis.h.i.+ng news to his mother.

Great must have been the effect of Jack's eloquence on those at home, for the timbers of the bridge were soon again resounding under the swift but heavy tramp of his steed; and he was quickly followed by the rest of our party in the cart.

All were in the highest state of excitement. Jack had stowed in the cart all the candles he could find, and we now, lighting these, shouldered our arms and entered. I led the way, sounding the ground as I advanced with a long pole, that we might not fall unexpectedly into any great hole or chasm.

Silently we marched--my wife, the boys, and even the dogs seeming overawed with the grandeur and beauty of the scene We were in a grotto of diamonds--a vast cave of glittering crystal; the candles reflected on the walls a golden light, bright as the stars of Heaven, while great crystal pillars rose from the floor like mighty trees, mingling their branches high above us and drooping in hundreds of stalact.i.tes, which sparkled and glittered with all the colours of the rainbow.

The floor of this magnificent palace was formed of hard, dry sand, so dry that I saw at once that we might safely take up our abode therein, without the slightest fear of danger from damp.

From the appearance of the brilliant crystals round about us, I suspected their nature. I tasted a piece. This was a cavern of rock-salt. There was no doubt about it--here was an unlimited supply of the best and purest salt!

But one thing detracted from my entire satisfaction and delight--large crystals lay scattered here and there, which, detached from the roof, had fallen to the ground; this, if apt to recur, would keep us in constant peril. I examined some of the ma.s.ses and discovered that they had been all recently separated, and therefore concluded that the concussion of the air, occasioned by the rockets, had caused their fall. To satisfy ourselves, however, that there were no more pieces tottering above us, we discharged our guns from the entrance, and watched the effect.

Nothing more fell--our magnificent abode was safe. We returned to Falconhurst with minds full of wonder at our new discovery, and plans for turning it to the best possible advantage.

Nothing was now talked of but the new house, how it should be arranged, how it should be fitted up. The safety and comfort of Falconhurst, which had at first seemed so great, now dwindled away in our opinion to nothing; it should be kept up we decided merely as a summer residence, while our cave should be formed into a winter house and impregnable castle.

Our attention was now fully occupied with this new house. Light and air were to be admitted, so we hewed a row of windows in the rock, where we fitted the window-cases we had brought from the officers' cabins.

We brought the door, too, from Falconhurst, and fitted it in the aperture we had made. The opening in the trunk of the tree I determined to conceal with bark, as less likely to attract the notice of wild beasts or savages should they approach during our absence.

The cave itself we divided into four parts: in front, a large compartment into which the door opened, subdivided into our sitting, eating and sleeping apartments; the right-hand division, containing our kitchen and workshop, and the left our stables; behind all this, in the dark recess of the cave, was our storehouse and powder-magazine.

Having already undergone one rainy reason, we knew well its discomforts, and thought of many useful arrangements in the laying-out of our dwelling. We did not intend to be again smoke-dried; we, therefore, contrived a properly built fireplace and chimney; our stable arrangements, too, were better, and plenty of s.p.a.ce was left in our workshop that we should not be hampered in even the most extensive operations.

Our frequent residence at Tentholm revealed to us several important advantages which we had not foreseen. Numbers of splendid turtles often came ash.o.r.e to deposit their eggs in the sand, and their delicious flesh afforded us many a sumptuous meal. When more than one of these creatures appeared at a time, we used to cut off their retreat to the sea, and, turning them on their backs, fasten them to a stake, driven in close by the water's edge, by a cord pa.s.sed through a hole in their sh.e.l.l. We thus had fresh turtle continually within our reach; for the animals throve well thus secured, and appeared in as good condition, after having been kept thus for several weeks, as others when freshly caught. Lobsters, crabs and mussels also abounded on the sh.o.r.e. But this was not all; an additional surprise awaited us.

As we were one morning approaching Tentholm, we were attracted by a most curious phenomenon. The waters out to sea appeared agitated by some unseen movement, and as they heaved and boiled, their surface, struck by the beams of the morning sun, seemed illuminated by flashes of fire.