Fire Island Part 50

"Was he?" said Oliver, rather anxiously.

"To be sure he was. If he had been awake he would have seen those deer and given warning, seeing how all the men are longing for a bit of fresh meat."

"Well, it seems probable," said Panton.

"No seem about it, Mr Panton. He was fast asleep, sir, till I fired.

Then he woke up and was all eagerness. Now if I was not a good-tempered, easy-going sort of man, do you know what I should do?"

"Haul that bit of sail down and let him take his chance of getting an arrow in him for his neglect."

The mate walked away, and ordered another man aloft to take the culprit's place, the offender receiving a very severe bullying, and being sent below.

The day wore slowly by, and as it grew towards sundown, Mr Rimmer began to walk faster about the deck with a growing anxiety which was shared by Drew's two companions.

"I don't know who'd be in command!" he said. "Here have I just got through one worry because you didn't return, had a sharp attack from savages, and had you two badly wounded; and now off goes Mr Drew and gets himself lost. Here has he been away all these hours, and he might have been back in six. There, I know how it is. The n.i.g.g.e.rs are out in force, and have got between them and the brig as sure as can be, that is if they haven't been killed before now. It will be dark directly, and as sure as fate we shall have another attack to-night. Wish I hadn't let him go."

"He'll be too cautious to get into a trap," said Oliver, whose face looked drawn and old with anxiety.

"He'll mean to be, sir, but the blacks have a cleverness of their own, and it's hard to get the better of them, civilised as we are. Tut, tut, tut! It would be madness to start in search of them without knowing which way to go."

"Yet, they would be as likely to come from the west as the east."

"Of course, and from the north as from the south. There, I've got blue lights ready, and the men's arms are lying to hand. If they don't come soon, and the blacks make their appearance instead, I'm afraid they will find me vicious."

"Let's try to be patient," said Oliver.

"Patience, sir! I've none of that left. Now then, I think it's time you gentlemen went below."

"Not yet," said Oliver. "It is so much cooler here, and if we went below we should be fidgety, and fretting horribly. There goes the sun."

For as he spoke the great glowing disk of orange light dipped below the horizon, great broad rays shot up nearly to the firmament, which for a few minutes was of a transparent amber; then all rapidly turned grey, dark grey, pale purple, purple, and almost directly black, covered with brilliant stars.

"No moon for three hours," said the mate, as he looked round at the black darkness, when the silence was suddenly broken by a chorus of croaking, roaring and chirruping from reptile and insect. Then came the strange trumpetings of birds; the splashings of crocodiles, accompanied by roaring barks and the flogging of the water with their tails. Once there was the unmistakable wailing cry of one of the great panther cats answered at a distance, while from the north there came every now and then a flickering flash of lightning evidently from the clouds hanging heavily over the huge crater. Then for a few moments silence, and a soft moist coolness floated by the watchers, followed by a heated puff, suggestive of a breath from the volcano, and they were conscious of a dull quivering of the deck.

"Wasn't thunder," said the mate. "That was a grumble down below."

Almost as he finished speaking there was a dull muttering, soon followed, not preceded, by flash after flash.

"Like a storm upside down," said Panton. "Not likely to have rain, are we, with the sky clear?"

"Likely to have anything," said the mate, "round the foot of a great volcano."

_Ha ha ha, haw haw haw_!

"Bah those birds again," said Panton, as the peculiar laughing hoot of a great owl was heard, raising up quite a chorus from the nearest patch of forest, but silenced by another muttering from below.

"We're going to have some terrible trouble, I'm afraid," said the mate.

"The volcano's waking up again, and the birds and things know it.

What's that?"

"Rushing of wings overhead," replied Oliver.

"Yes, the birds know, and are getting out of the way. Hark at those tiger things, too, how uneasy they are! I'd give all I've got, gentlemen, if Mr Drew and those two fellows were safe back on deck, for we shall have a storm to-night."

"But we are not at sea," said Oliver.

"More we are!" replied the mate. "'Pon my word, I was going on just as if I expected we were going to fight the waves. But I wish we were.

I'd rather have solid water under me than boiling rock."

"Quick! look out," cried Oliver excitedly as there was a rushing trampling sound in the distance, evidently coming nearer. "It's the savages we shall have to fight, and they're coming on again."

They listened in the midst of an appalling stillness, while the whole deck seemed to be quivering, and the vessel gave two or three ominous cracks. There was another flash, then a boom, and a momentary blinding glare of light, while the coming trampling for a moment ceased, but only to be resumed again, as every man grasped his weapon, and felt for his supply of ammunition, feeling that in another minute he might be face to face with death.

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

THE CAT DID IT.

The quivering continued, and the earth beneath the vessel throbbed in slow pulsations. The vivid flashes and thunderous growls as of distant explosions went on, and the rushing sound of many feet came nearer and nearer as the occupants of the brig strained their eyes to pierce the transparent darkness to get a glance of their enemies, and then all stood wondering; for after rising to a certain pitch, the rushing sound began to die away gradually. Then followed a vivid flash and a heavy boom as of some huge gun, and as it died away they were conscious of a stillness that was terrible in its oppression, the quivering beneath their feet ceased, and then startling and clear, from right away to the westward, came the piercing note of the boatswain's pipe.

"Drew!" cried Oliver, joyously.

"Yes, that's he," said the mate, "and he wants help. There, take charge of the deck, Mr Panton. I must go and bring him. Volunteers here: six men."

Twelve sprang to his side, and he selected half a dozen, all well armed and ready to face anything.

As they moved to the gangway where others held the ladder ready for them to descend, the shrill note of the whistle was heard again.

"Draw up the ladder as soon as we're down, my lads," said the mate, "and stand ready to make a rush to help us when we come back, for we may be hard pressed."

"Ay, ay!" came readily from the rest of the crew, and the next minute the little rescue party was off at a trot, leaving Oliver Lane and Panton feverish and excited as they writhed in their weakness and misery at being compelled to lie there inert, unable to stir a step to the help of their companion.

All was still as the footsteps died out. There was no rushing sound of an enemy at hand, the explosions and flashes from the volcano had ceased, and once more it was a calm tropic night.

But the shrill whistle could be heard at intervals of about a minute, sometimes sounding closer, sometimes apparently at a great distance.

"Won't them black beggars hear 'em, sir?" said one of the men, drawing near to where the two young naturalists sat. "Seems to me as if it would be a deal better if Mr Drew kept that pipe in his pocket."

"There are no blacks to hear them," said Panton, quietly.

The man started.

"Beg pardon, sir, but me and my mates heered 'em a-rooshin' along."

"We all thought we did," said Panton; "but Mr Lane and I have come to the conclusion that the sounds we heard were made by animals and birds startled by the explosions at the burning mountain, and flying for safety to the lower part of the island."

"Why, of course," said the man, giving his knee a slap; "there was a regular flapping noise with it, and a whizzing just as if there was swarms of great bees going along like mad. Well, I'm glad o' that, because if we did have to fight again, I don't want it to be in the dark."