Fire Island Part 33

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

TOMMY SMITH'S GHOST.

"Must be one of the men," said Oliver, excitedly. "Come on."

"But that thing you saw below there among the trees?"

"We can't stop about that. It's some kind of great cat. I'll try this."

He raised his gun and fired quickly in among the trees to scare the creature, whatever it might be, and there came in response a snarling yell, followed by a crashing, as of the animal bounding away through the undergrowth.

Directly after there came from high up a second report, as if from a minor explosion of the volcano, but it was evidently only the echo of the gun.

There was another sound though, which was far more startling and awe-inspiring, and made the three young men draw together and stand gazing upward, waiting to find which direction would be the safest in which to flee.

For, directly after the echo, there was a strange whispering noise as of cinders sliding one over the other a long distance away and right up towards the crater above their heads.

As naturalists they knew on the instant what this meant, and it struck all in the same way--that it resembled the falling of a little hard granulated ice in a mountain--the starting of an avalanche. And as the ash and cinder, with the vitrified blocks of stone, lay loose on the mighty slope, they felt that it was quite possible for the firing of the gun to have caused an avalanche of another kind.

In a few seconds they knew that this was the case, for the whispering rapidly increased into a loud rustling, which soon became a rush, and directly after increased to a roar; and now, for the first time, they began to realise how vast the mountain was in its height and extent, for the rushing sound went on and on, gathering in force, and at last Drew exclaimed, as he gazed upward at an indistinct mist apparently travelling down towards them,--

"Come on; we shall be swept away."

"No, no," cried Panton and Oliver, almost in a breath; "We may be as safe here as anywhere. Perhaps we should rush into more danger."

And now the warm, ruddy glow of the setting sun was obscured by rising clouds, which they at once grasped were dust; a semi-darkness came on, and through this they had a glimpse of the mountain-side all in motion and threatening to overwhelm them where they stood.

It was hard work to master the feeling of panic which impelled them to run for their lives, but fortunately they had strength of mind enough to stand fast while the tumult increased, and, joining hands, they kept their places with hearts throbbing, half-suffocated by the dust which now shut them in, while, with a furious roar, the avalanche of cinder, stones, and ashes swept by, not twenty yards from where they stood, and subsided amidst the cracking of boughs and tearing up of trees at the edge of the forest.

It was like the dying sighs of some monster, the sound they heard directly after growing fainter and fainter, till there was the mere whisper made by trickling ashes, then even that subsided, and they stood in a cloud of dust, listening while it slowly rolled away. At last, as they gazed downward, there, below them, to the right, was a huge opening torn into the forest, with broken limbs, prostrate trunks, and great mop-like roots standing up out from a slope of grey cinders and calcined stones.

"What an escape," muttered Oliver. "Warning: we must not fire again near the mountain."

"Hark!" cried Panton. "There it is again."

For, from a distance, came a long, low, mournful shout, and directly after it was repeated, and they made out that it was the familiar sea-going _Ahoy_.

"It's only one of the men," said Oliver, and, putting his hand to his mouth, he was about to answer, but Panton checked him.

"Will it bring down another fall?" he whispered.

"No, no. There can be little fear of that now," said Oliver. "All the loose dusty stuff must have come down," and he hailed loudly; but his cry had, apparently, no effect, for it was not answered.

"Come on," said Panton, after a few moments' pause in the awful silence, which seemed to be far more terrible now, after the fall; and in the gathering darkness they started off, with the edge of the forest on their right to guide them. But the first part of their journey was not easy, for they had to climb and struggle through the ash and cinders, which had fallen, for a s.p.a.ce of quite a couple of hundred yards before they were upon firm ground.

Then, as they stopped for a few moments to regain their breath, there was the mournful, despairing _Ahoy_! again, but though they answered several times over, there was no response till they had tramped on amidst increasing difficulties for quite a quarter of an hour--that which had been comparatively easy in broad daylight, growing more and more painful and toilsome as the darkness deepened.

Then, all at once, after a response to the mournful _Ahoy_, there came a hail in quite a different tone.

"Ahoy! Where away?"

"All right! Where are you?" cried Oliver.

"Here you are, sir. Here you are," came from not a hundred yards away, and directly after they met Wriggs.

"It's you, then, who has been hailing," cried Oliver. "Why didn't you answer when we shouted?"

"Did yer shout, sir? Never heerd yer till just now. Thought I should never hear no one again. Got lost and skeered. But I've found you at last."

"Found us, yes, of course. What made you leave Smith and come after us?"

"Didn't, sir. He left me and lost hisself, and I couldn't find him. It was soon after we'd lit a fire. He went off to get some more wood and there was an end of him."

"What, Smith gone?"

"Yes, sir. He's swallowed up in some hole or another, or else eat up by wild beasts. I couldn't find him nowhere, and I couldn't stand it alone there among them sarpents."

"Serpents? What, near our camp?" said Drew, who began to think of their adventure in the cabin.

"Yes, sir," said Wriggs, who was all of a tremble from exertion and dread. "I stood it as long as I could, with 'em hissing all round me, and then I felt as though if I stopped alone much longer I should go off my chump."

"What?"

"Go raving mad, sir, so I shoved some more stuff on the fire, and as soon as it began to blaze and crackle there was a bigger hissing than ever, and the serpents all came rushing at me, and I ran for my life and to try and find you."

"Come along," cried Panton. "We must get back and find Smith."

"You never will, sir," said Wriggs, dolefully. "Poor old Tommy's gone.

I expect it was the snakes. They must have smelt as it was we who skinned their mates. I had a narrow escape from 'em."

"Did you see them?" asked Oliver.

"Well, sir, I didn't zackly see 'em, but I could hear 'em all about me awful."

"Then you are not sure they were snakes?"

"Not sure, sir? Why, that I am. Nothing else couldn't keep on hissing at you but snakes and sarpents. Oh, lor! it's a horful lonesome place, I was a shivering all down my back. Why, not long ago, while I was coming along hailing of yer, I heard a mountain come sliding down like thunder, and shooting loads o' stones."

"You've been scared, Wriggs," said Oliver, as he hurried the man back.

"Tell me again."

"What, 'bout being scared, sir?"

"Nonsense, we mustn't be scared at a noise; I mean about Smith wandering away."

"Aren't nowt to tell, sir, only as he went to get some more wood, and the sarpents caught him. Swaller a feller up whole, don't they, sir?"