Jack at Sea Part 37

He took a few steps, and suddenly came across Edward.

"That you, Mr Jack, sir?" said the man.

"Can't you see it is?" replied the lad shortly.

"Yes, sir, and sorry for you I am."

"What do you mean?"

"Why, sir, about the island. They've been a-cracking it up to us, and making believe as it was the loveliest place as ever was, and now we've got to it, why it's all gammon."

"Then you've seen it, Ned?"

"Seen it, sir? I wish I hadn't. It's a trick they've played on us because we're what they call longsh.o.r.e folk. Makes me long for the sh.o.r.e, I can tell you. A jolly shame, sir."

"It does look dreary, Ned."

"Dreary aren't the word for it, but you can't gammon me. I know what it is; I've read about 'em. It's one of them out-of-the-way stony places where they used to send convicks to. 'Rubbish may be shot here' spots.

And a lot of the rubbish used to be shot there if they tried to escape.

Oh, it is a dismal horror place. Give me the miserables as soon as I saw it, after spoiling my night's rest for fear I shouldn't wake up at daylight to see what it was like. I've seen it though, and I don't want any more, thankye. Don't want me, I suppose, sir?"

"No, Ned. I'm going back to bed."

"Are you, sir? Well, that's a good idea, and I don't see why I shouldn't do the same."

"Let's have another look at the place first."

"No thankye, sir. If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not. Once was quite enough. Of course, if you say I am to look, sir, there I am."

"Oh no, I don't want you. Go back to bed. It's a miserable place, Ned, but I dare say there will be some good fishing."

"Take a lot of good fishing, sir, and they'd have to be very fresh, to make it worth staying for. Good-night, sir."

"Good-morning, Ned," said Jack with a faint smile, and the man went below, while, feeling chilly and depressed, and as if it would be wiser to follow the fellow's example, he walked moodily forward, gazing over the side in the direction of the island, and noticing now that there was a low line of thick mist lying just over where the billows broke in foam and produced the deep thunderous roar.

Cold, chilling, and repellent as it was, Jack could not repress a shiver, and the feeling of dislike to the voyage, which had been rapidly dying out in the new interests he felt, came back with renewed force.

"Why did we come?" he muttered.

As his eyes grew more accustomed to the gloom, he saw that the low clouds seemed to be in bands above each other, increasing the strangely forbidding aspect.

Just then there was a light step on the deck, and the mate came up.

"Morning," he said. "Here we are, you see."

"See? Yes; but what a place!"

"Eh?" cried the mate in surprise; "what, don't you like the look of it?"

"No; it is horrible. Just a black and grey mountain rising out of the sea. Are we at anchor?"

"No; only lying-to, waiting for the full light, so as to find the opening through the reef. There is no anchorage out here; I dare say the lead would go down a mile."

"What, so close to the sh.o.r.e?"

"Oh yes. These volcanic mountains rise up suddenly--steeply, I mean, from very great depths, and then the coral insects begin building upon them, and form regular breakwaters of solid stone all round, and these coral reefs rise just to the surface, and keep the waves from washing the sides of the volcano away."

"What a pity!" said Jack mockingly. "I don't see any good in preserving a great black-looking heap like that."

"Don't you?" said the mate, smiling, and looking back up at the gloomy eminence.

"No, I don't," replied Jack, with a touch of early morning ill-humour in his tones. "But isn't that nonsense? The sea could not wash away an island like that."

"What! Why, give it time and it will wash away a continent. But an island like this would be nothing to it without the coral insects stopped it. Some volcanoes rise in these seas and never get much above the surface--the waves wash them away as fast as they form. You see they are only made up of loose cinders and ashes which fall over outside as they are thrown up. Others are more solid if liquid lava boils over the edge of the crater and runs down. This gradually hardens into ma.s.sive rock, and resists the beating of the sea till the coral insects have done their work, building up to the surface of the sea, and then going on at the sides."

"I suppose you are right," said Jack with a yawn, "but the sooner we get away from this ugly place the better."

"Think so? Well, wait and see it by daylight first. Look!"

He pointed to where, nearly a mile above them, a bright golden spot had appeared.

"Why, the volcano's burning," cried Jack excitedly. "Look! It's red-hot, and gradually increasing. There's going to be an eruption.

How grand! But shall we be safe here?"

"Quite," said the mate, smiling, and he stood watching his companion's face, and its changes in the glowing light of the magnificent spectacle, as the golden red-hot aspect of the mountain top rapidly increased, displaying every seam, ravine, and b.u.t.tress, that seemed to be of burning metal, fiery spot after fiery spot, that the minute before was of a deep violet black. And this went on, with the fire appearing to sink gradually down till the whole of the mountain top was one grand blaze of glory, which went on apparently sinking behind a belt of clouds, till from being of dark and gloomy grey they began to glow and become of a wonderful translucency.

"Oh!" panted the lad, "I never saw anything so grand as that. Look how the awful fire is reflected in the sky all round there."

"Yes, it's brightening it well up," said the mate, smiling; and then the boy looked in his face, and the truth came to him like a flash from the great orb to enlighten his understanding.

"Why, you're laughing at me," he cried. "How stupid! I thought the mountain was burning. You should have told me. How was I to--Yes, I ought to have known that mountain tops first caught the light. Oh, I wish I were not so ignorant."

"You are not the first who has been deceived," said the mate quietly.

"Well, the mountain does not look so gloomy now, does it?"

"Glorious! Up there it is grand. I wish we were on the top."

"All in good time. But you know how quickly the full day comes here near the equator. Keep looking."

Jack wanted no telling, and for the next few minutes, with a curious sense of awe, wonder, and delight, he stood watching the line of light descending and making the beauties of the volcanic island start out of the gloom. The bands of cloud which hung round the sharp slope became roseate, golden, orange, and purple, and soon after the lad was gazing below the barren, glowing rocks at patches of golden green, then at the beginning of billows and deep valleys running down, the former of wonderful shades of green, the latter of deep dark velvety purple, across which silvery films of vapour were floating.

And still the light came down, casting wonderful shadows, setting towering pyramidical trees blazing as it were; and then all at once the boy could have believed that he was gazing where there was a gash of liquid fire pouring down into a dark valley, flashing and coruscating till it disappeared.

And still lower and lower, with wonderful rapidity now, as the great glowing disk was seen to rise above the edge of the sea, till the whole island was ablaze in the morning sunshine, and the gloomy, forbidding ma.s.s was one glorious picture of tropic beauty. Forests grouped themselves about the lower mountain slopes, lovely park-like stretches could be seen lower still, and beneath lower groves of palm-like trees a band of golden sand. Nearer still, thin lines of cocoa palms edging what appeared to be a lake of the purest blue, edged in turn with a sparkling line of foam, where the billows seemed to be eternally fretting to get over the surrounding reef and plunge themselves into the placid, perfectly calm lagoon.

Lastly there was the dark sea, now lit up into a gleaming plain of gently heaving waves; all being shot as it were with purple, where again patches of rippled damascened silver flashed in the opening of a new day.

"It is too beautiful," muttered the boy to himself. "It seems almost as if it hurt and made one sad. Oh," he said aloud, "and I never called him up to see."