Freaks on the Fells: Three Months' Rustication Part 28

At length the water reached the hatchway and poured in a roaring cataract into the hold. The vessel filled, gave a heavy lurch to port, a species of tremor pa.s.sed through her frame as if she was a living thing and knew that her hour had come, then she went down in a whirlpool, leaving Jack and me struggling in the sea.

We were both good swimmers, so that we did not experience much alarm, especially when we felt that the sea was comparatively warm; we struck out for the sh.o.r.e, and, being the better swimmer of the two, I took the lead.

But now to our horror we found that we were followed by sharks!

No sooner did we observe this than we struck out with all the energy of terror. We never swam as we did on that occasion. It seemed to me quite miraculous. The water burst from our b.r.e.a.s.t.s in foam, and we left long white tracks behind us as we clove our way through the water like two boats. It was awful. I shall never forget my feelings on that occasion: they were indescribable--inconceivable!

We were about a quarter of a mile from a point of rocks when our ship sank. In an incredibly short s.p.a.ce of time we were close on the rocks.

Being several yards ahead of Jack, I was the first to clamber up, my heart fluttering with fear, yet filled with deep grat.i.tude for my deliverance. I turned to help Jack. He was yet six yards from sh.o.r.e, when a dreadful shark made a rush at him.

"Oh! quick! quick!" I screamed.

He was panting and straining like a lion. Another moment and his hand would have been in mine, but at that moment I beheld the double rows of horrid teeth close upon him. He uttered a piercing shriek, and there was an indescribably horrible _scrunch_ as he went down. In a moment after, he re-appeared, and making a last frightful effort to gain the rocks, caught my hand. I dragged him out of danger instantly, and then I found, to my unutterable joy, that the shark had only bitten off the half of his wooden leg!

Embracing each other fervently, we sat down in the rocks to rest and collect our thoughts.

STORY TWO, CHAPTER 7.

I have often found, from experience, that the more one tries to collect one's thoughts, the more one's thoughts pertinaciously scatter themselves abroad, almost beyond the possibility of discovery. Such was the case with me, after escaping from the sea and the sharks, as related circ.u.mstantially in the last chapter. Perhaps the truth of this may best be ill.u.s.trated by laying before my readers the dialogue that ensued between me and Jack on the momentous occasion referred to, as follows:--

_Jack_. "I say, Bob, where in all the world have we got to?"

_Bob_. "Upon my word, I don't know."

_Jack_. "It's very mysterious."

_Bob_. "What's very mysterious?"

_Jack_. "Where we've got to. Can't you guess?"

_Bob_. "Certainly. Suppose I say Lapland?"

_Jack_. (Shaking his head), "Won't do."

_Bob_. "Why?"

_Jack_. "'Cause there are no palm-trees in Lapland."

_Bob_. "Dear me, that's true. How confused my head is! I'll tell you what it is, Jack, I can't think. _That's it_--that's the cause of the mystery that seems to beset me, I can't tell how; and then I've been ill--that's it too."

_Jack_. "How can there be two causes for one effect, Bob? You're talking stuff, man. If I couldn't talk better sense than that, I'd not talk at all."

_Bob_. "Then why don't you hold your tongue? I tell you what it is, Jack, we're bewitched. You said I was mad some time ago. You were right--so I am; so are you. There are too many mysteries here for any two sane men." (Here Jack murmured we weren't men, but boys.) "There's the running away and not being caught--the ship ready to sail the moment we arrive; there's your joining me after all your good advice; there's that horrible fight, and the lions, and Edwards, and the sinking of our ship, and the--the--in short, I feel that I'm mad still. I'm not recovered yet. Here, Jack, take care of me!"

Instead of replying to this, Jack busied himself in fitting a piece of wood he had picked up to his wooden leg, and lashing it firmly to the old stump. When he had accomplished his task, he turned gravely to me and said--

"Bob, your faculties are wandering pretty wildly to-day, but you've not yet hit upon the cause of all our misfortunes. The true cause is that _you have disobeyed your father, and I my mother_."

I hung my head. I had now no longer difficulty in collecting my thoughts--they circled round that point until I thought that remorse would have killed me. Then suddenly I turned with a look of gladness to my friend.

"But you forget _the letter_! We are forgiven!"

"True," cried Jack, with a cheerful expression; "we can face our fate with that a.s.surance. Come, let us strike into the country and discover where we are. I'll manage to hop along pretty well with my wooden leg.

We'll get home as soon as we can, by land if not by water, and then we'll remain at home--won't we, Bob?"

"Remain at home!" I cried; "ay, that will we. I've had more than enough of foreign experiences already. Oh! Jack, Jack, it's little I care for the sufferings I have endured--but your leg, Jack! Willingly, most willingly, my dear friend, would I part with my own, if by so doing I could replace yours."

Jack took my hand and squeezed it.

"It's gone now, Bob," he said sadly. "I must just make the most of the one that's left. 'Tis a pity that the one that's left is only the left one."

So saying he turned his back to the sea, and, still retaining my hand in his, led me into the forest.

But here unthought-of trouble awaited us at the very outset of our wanderings. The ground which we first encountered was soft and swampy, so that I sank above the ankles at every step. In these circ.u.mstances, as might have been expected, poor Jack's wooden leg was totally useless.

The first step he took after entering the jungle, his leg penetrated the soft ground to the depth of nine or ten inches, and at the second step it disappeared altogether--insomuch that he could by no means pull it out.

"I say, Bob," said he, with a rueful expression of countenance, "I'm in a real fix now, and no mistake. Come to anchor prematurely. I resolved to stick at nothing, and here I have stuck at the first step. What _is_ to be done?"

Jack's right leg being deep down in the ground, it followed, as a physical consequence, that his left leg was bent as if he were in a sitting posture. Observing this fact, just as he made the above remark, he placed both his hands on his left knee, rested his chin on his hands, and gazed meditatively at the ground. The action tickled me so much that I gave a short laugh. Jack looked up and laughed too, whereupon we both burst incontinently into an uproarious fit of laughter, which might have continued ever so long had not Jack, in the fulness of his mirth, given his fixed leg a twist that caused it to crack.

"Hallo! Bob," he cried, becoming suddenly very grave, "I say, this won't do, you know; if I break it short off you'll have to carry me, my boy: so it behoves me to be careful. What is to be done?"

"Come, I'll help you to pull it out."

"Oh! that's not what troubles me. But after we get it out what's to be done?"

"Jack," said I, seriously, "one thing at a time. When we get you out, then it will be time enough to inquire what to do next."

"That's sound philosophy, Bob; where did you pick it up? I suspect you must have been studying Shakespeare of late, on the sly. But come, get behind me, and put your hands under my arms, and heave; I'll shove with my sound limb. Now let us act together. Stay! Bob, we've been long enough aboard ship to know the value of a song in producing unity of action. Take the tune from me."

Suiting the action to the word, Jack gave forth, at the top of his voice, one or two of those peculiarly nautical howls wherewith seamen are wont to constrain windla.s.ses and capstans to creak, and anchors to let go their hold.

"Now then, heave away, my hearties; yo-heave-o-hoi!"

At the last word we both strained with all our might. I heard Jack's braces burst with the effort. We both became purple in the face, but the leg remained immovable! With a loud simultaneous sigh we relaxed, and, looking at each other, groaned slightly.

"Come, come, Bob, never say die; one trial more; it was the braces that spoiled it that time. Now then, cheerily ho! my hearties, heave-yo-hee-o-HOY!"

The united force applied this time was so great that we tore asunder all the fastenings of the leg at one wrench, and Jack and I suddenly shot straight up, as if we had been discharged from a hole in the ground.

Losing our balance we fell over each other on our backs--the wooden leg remaining hard and fast in the ground.

"Ah! Jack," said I sorrowfully, as I rubbed the mud off my garments, "if we had remained at home this would not have happened."

"If we had remained at home," returned Jack, rather gruffly, as he hopped towards his leg, "_nothing_ would have happened. Come, Bob, lay hold of it. Out it shall come, if the inside of the world should come along with it. There now--_heave_!"

This time we gave vent to no shout, but we hove with such a will, that Jack split his jacket from the waist to the neck, and the leg came out with a crack that resembled the drawing of the largest possible cork out of the biggest conceivable bottle.