The Castaways Part 12

"Oi tell ye it _will_ be found; it _must_ be found!" shouted O'Gorman, goaded to fury at the suggestion that perhaps, after all, a dire disappointment lay in store for him. "If the oiland isn't there, it's somewheres thereabouts, widin a few miles more or less; and we've got to find it afore the hooker turns her nose towards home. Now I hopes that's plain enough for ye."

And, smiting the chart a mighty blow with his clenched fist, he turned on his heel and walked forward.

It need scarcely be said that after such a dogmatic statement as this I found my anxiety greatly increased; for I by this time knew the Irishman well enough to be fully aware that no mule could be more obstinate than he, and that, having once made up his mind that his island existed, he would never abandon his search until he had found it--or something that might pa.s.s for it. And I was determined that should our search prove unsuccessful, I would at once bear up for the Marquesas, and let him take his choice from among the whole group. Indeed, for a moment I felt tempted to shape as straight a course as I could for the centre of the group, without troubling to hunt for O'Gorman's particular island at all, as I gravely doubted whether it really had an existence outside the man's own imagination. But, on the other hand, his information was drawn from a doc.u.ment that, while stained and discoloured with age, had every appearance--from my casual inspection of it--of being genuine; and, if so, the island might possibly exist, although uncharted.

Moreover, O'Gorman had not seized the brig and become a pirate merely to satisfy an idle curiosity as to the accuracy of the doc.u.ment he had produced; he was going there for a certain definite purpose; to search for something, probably; and, if so, nothing short of our arrival at that particular island would satisfy him. So, having laid off the course upon the chart, I gave it to the helmsman, and called the hands aft to trim sail.

Of our pa.s.sage into the solitudes of the Pacific I have nothing to relate, save that Miss Onslow's demeanour toward me became, if possible, more perplexing and tantalising than ever. To convey a clear and accurate idea of her varying moods it would be necessary to relate in tolerably minute detail the particulars of our daily intercourse throughout the voyage--a course of procedure which would not only expand my story far beyond its proper limits, but would also entirely alter its character--I must therefore content myself with merely stating that I believe I may, without exaggeration, a.s.sert that I never found her upon any two occasions to behave in a precisely similar manner. She appeared to regulate her treatment of me by the behaviour of the men. She had long ago abandoned that almost insolent hauteur of manner that distinguished her at the outset of our acquaintance; but if the weather was fine, the wind fair, the men upon their best behaviour--as sometimes happened--_in_ short, _if_ things were going well with me in other respects, she invariably kept me at arm's-length by a certain indefinable, but none the less unmistakable, coolness, indifference, and distance of manner just sufficiently p.r.o.nounced to suggest a desire to be left to herself. But in proportion as difficulties, anxieties, and vexations arose, so did her manner warm to me until there were times when it became almost caressingly tender; so that, as my pa.s.sion for her grew, I sometimes felt almost tempted to feign an anxiety or a distress that did not exist, for the mere delight of finding her manner warming to me. But I take credit to myself that I always resisted the temptation, fighting against it as a thing to yield to which would be mean and unmanly on my part.

In this strange and contradictory condition of alternate peace, rendered insipid by Miss Onslow's coolness, and anxiety converted into happiness unspeakable by the warmth and tenderness of her sympathy, I carried the brig toward the spot indicated in O'Gorman's doc.u.ment; and at noon on a certain day my observations showed that we had arrived within sixty miles of it. The weather was then brilliantly fine, with a gentle breeze out from about west-north-west, that wafted the brig along over the low, long mounds of the Pacific swell at a rate of about five knots; consequently, if the island happened to be in the position a.s.signed to it, we ought to reach it about midnight. O'Gorman's desire to be made acquainted with our exact position daily had been growing ever since we had shifted our helm after rounding the Horn, beginning as a condition of languid curiosity, which had strengthened into a state of feverish restlessness and anxiety that, on the day in question, as soon as I had conveyed to him the customary information, found vent in an order that a man should go aloft and maintain a lookout from the topgallant yard until the island should be sighted, the remainder of the crew being set to work during the afternoon to rouse out and bend the cables, and to attend to the various other matters incidental to the approach of a vessel to a port. He also had the spare spars overhauled and suitable ones selected for the purpose of erecting tents in conjunction with the brig's old sails, from all of which I inferred that our stay at the island--should we happen to find it--would be a somewhat protracted one.

As to the probability of our finding the place, I was exceedingly doubtful; for although I was well aware that hitherto unknown islands were still occasionally being discovered in the Pacific, I was equally well aware that these new islands were almost invariably low, and of insignificant dimensions, being, in fact, merely coral reefs that have been gradually lifted above the surface of the ocean; whereas O'Gorman's doc.u.ment contained mention of a _hill_, and the presence of a hill argued a probable existence of ages, and a consequently corresponding likelihood of comparatively early discovery.

But at two bells in the second dog-watch, that night, all doubt was put an end to by a sudden, startling cry from the lookout on the fore-topgallant yard of:

"Land ho; right ahead!"

I was on deck at the time, and far from expecting to hear such a cry; indeed so incredulous was I still that I quite concluded the man had allowed his imagination to run away with him, and was mistaking the shoulder of some low-lying cloud for distant land. So I hailed him with:

"Topgallant yard, there! are you quite sure that what you see is land, and not a hummock of cloud?"

"Yes, sir," he shouted back; "I'm _quite_ sure of it. I've been watchin' it growin' for the last quarter of a hour or more, and it haven't changed its shape the least bit all that time; only growed the leastest bit bigger and clearer."

Meanwhile, O'Gorman had sprung into the rigging and was by this time clawing his way over the rim of the top. Another minute, and he was on the topgallant yard, alongside the other man, peering ahead into the fast gathering dusk, under the sharp of his hand. He stared at it for a good five minutes; then, shouting down "It's all right, mates; it's land, and no mistake!" he swung himself on to the backstay, and came down on deck by way of it. He no sooner reached the deck than he plunged into the forecastle, from which he presently emerged again, bearing in his hand a packet that I presently recognised as his precious doc.u.ment. He came straight aft to me with it, and said:

"Now, misther, I want ye to get a bit of paper and write down the directions that Oi'll read out to ye. Oi'm all right in deep wather, and wid plenty of say-room to come and go upon; but whin it comes to navigatin' narrow channels, and kapin' clear of the rocks, and takin' a vessel to her anchorage, bedad I'm nowhere. So I'll be obliged to ask ye to write down the instructions that Oi've got here, and then ye'll take command of the brig until she's safe at anchor."

"Very well," I said. "Are the instructions very long?"

"Two or three dozen words 'll cover the lot," answered the Irishman.

"All right," said I; "fire away." And drawing a pencil and paper from my pocket, I prepared to copy down whatever he might read to me.

"'Approach island from nor'-west,'" began O'Gorman, "'and stand towards it wid summit of hill bearin' south-east, half-south; which leads through the pa.s.sage in the barrier reef. Then haul up to south a quarter west, for the mouth of the bight at the bottom of the bay.

Stand boldly in until ye come abreast of the big rock at the mouth of the bight, when clew up and furl everything. Follow the bight until ye reach the lagoon, when ye may anchor annywhere not closer than a dozen fadoms of the oiland. The gems'--oh, bedad, but that's another matther intoirely," he hastily concluded.

"The directions seem explicit enough," said I; "and as no mention is made of any dangers to be avoided I suppose there are none. All the same, we shall need daylight for the job of taking the brig to the berth mentioned, so I shall stand on until four bells in the first watch, and then heave-to for the remainder of the night. At daylight we will fill away again and work round to the nor'-west side of the island, when, if the water happens to be clear, we shall perhaps be able to see the bottom from aloft, and thus safely pilot the vessel to her anchorage. I will con her myself from the fore-topmast crosstrees."

At four bells--ten o'clock--that night, the island showed through the clear darkness upon the horizon as an irregularly-shaped pyramid, with a peak nearly in the centre of it, rising to a height which I estimated at about six or seven hundred feet. The island itself was at that time some ten miles distant, and, measured from end to end, as we then looked at it, I took it to be about four miles across. We hove the brig to, and tried a cast first with the hand lead, and then with the deep-sea lead, but got no bottom, at which I was by no means surprised, as I had already heard that many of the islands in the Pacific--especially those of coral formation--rise sheer from the very bottom of the sea.

At daybreak the next morning I was called by the steward, and, dressing, went on deck, to find that the weather was as it had been all through the preceding day, namely, a light breeze from the westward, with a cloudless sky of crystalline clearness overhead, and a long, low sluggish swell undulating athwart the gently-ruffled surface of the ocean. The island now bore about four points on our weather quarter, some sixteen miles distant; so we filled the main-topsail, got way upon the ship, and hauled up to "full-and-by," when it was found that we should just handsomely fetch clear of the most leeward point of the land.

Viewed by the early daylight, the island presented a most attractive appearance, rising against the background of sky as a picture painted in an infinite variety of delicate purple tones of shadow, through which, with the aid of the gla.s.s, could be made out the several declivities, gorges, precipices, and ravines that went to make up the contour of the country. It was thickly wooded everywhere, seemingly from the water's edge to within some eighty feet or so of the summit, the latter rising naked into the clear air. But attractive as it looked under the soft, subdued light of the early dawn, in the delicate monochrome of distance, and the absence of direct sunlight, it looked even more beautiful when, after sunrise, as we approached it more closely, the countless subtle variations of tint in the foliage, from this in brightest sunlight, to that in deepest, richest purple shadow, became manifest; and so powerful an impression did it make upon the men that I overheard them freely discussing the desirability of making a lengthened sojourn there.

"Yes," said I, when O'Gorman, carried away by his enthusiasm at the beauty of the place, hinted at such a possibility, "that is all very well, and sounds very attractive just now; but has it yet occurred to you that yonder island may be peopled by a race of savages who, if we give them the opportunity, will gladly make a barbecue of all hands?"

"Phew! begorra, but Oi nivver thought of that!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed in sudden dismay. "Oi'm obliged to ye for the hint, misther. We'll load the guns and muskets, and make ready generally for the blagguards, if they have the impidence to be there."

And forthwith he shambled away for'ard, unceremoniously cutting into the holiday plans that the men were busily concocting, and instructing them to load the guns and arm themselves in readiness for any emergency that might arise.

As we stood in toward the land I kept a bright lookout for smoke, for huts peeping from among the trees, for canoes hauled up on the beach, or any other indications of the presence of human life on the island, but could see nothing. At this, however, I was not very greatly surprised, for although we were on the lee side of the island, the surf was breaking so heavily all along the sh.o.r.e as to render it impracticable for canoes. If the island happened to be inhabited, the inhabitants would probably be found located on its weather side, which, according to O'Gorman's doc.u.ment, was protected from the surf by a barrier reef, with a pa.s.sage through it.

As we stood on it became apparent that the island was nearer five than four miles long--as I had estimated it to be on the previous night--that its general trend was from north-east to south-west, and that, if surveyed and laid down upon the chart, it would present a somewhat flat and irregular crescent-like plan. The barrier reef sprang from the north-east extremity of the island, sweeping seaward on the arc of a circle on its north-western side, and uniting again with the island at its south-western extremity, forming a lagoon of the same length as the island, and about three-quarters of a mile wide at its widest point.

The barrier reef, in fact, const.i.tuted a magnificent natural breakwater, upon which the surf eternally broke in a loud, sullen roar of everlasting thunder, while inside it the water was smooth as a mill pond, shoaling very gradually from the reef to the sh.o.r.e of the island, which consisted of a narrow beach of dazzling white sand, bordered by a fringe of thousands of cocoa-nut palms, the long, plume-like branches of which swayed gently in the soft, warm morning breeze. It was on this side of the island, I concluded, that, if anywhere, traces of inhabitants would be found, and I scanned the sh.o.r.e carefully and anxiously through the ship's gla.s.s in search of such; but nothing of the kind was to be seen; and I at length closed the telescope with a clash, relieved to believe that, whatever anxieties there might be awaiting me in the immediate future, trouble with hostile natives was not to be one of them.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

THE ISLAND.

Standing on as we were going, we ratched past the island until it was left a couple of miles astern of us, when we tacked ship, and brought the land on our lee beam. Then, steering full and by, half an hour's sailing sufficed to bring the summit of the hill to the required compa.s.s-bearing of south-east, half-south, whereupon we bore dead away for it, and, leaving O'Gorman in charge of the deck, I sprang into the fore rigging and mounted to the crosstrees, from which commanding elevation I intended to con the brig to her anchorage. Miss Onslow was on deck by this time, drinking in, with eager, flashing eyes, the beauty and brilliant colour of the picture presented by the emerald island in its setting of sapphire sea; but as I sprang into the rigging I noticed that her gaze followed me; and when I swung myself out to clamber over the rim of the top--a performance which, to the eye of the landsman, appears distinctly hazardous--she suddenly clasped her hands upon her breast, as though in terror for my safety. The action was trifling enough, perhaps, yet I was disposed to regard it as not quite insignificant, since I had often stood by her side as she had watched-- with evidently no stronger emotion than amus.e.m.e.nt--others perform the same feat.

Upon reaching my perch I found that we were still in deep water, no sign whatever of the bottom being visible through the depths of the exquisitely beautiful, clear, crystalline blue; but ahead, at the very fringe of the breakers that were dashing themselves into diamond and pearl-white spray upon the stubborn rampart of the barrier reef, there was a change of colour that told of shoaling depths; and a qualm of anxiety swept over me as I pictured to myself what would probably happen if, sweeping in before the wind as we were, we should plunge into that belt of seething white water, and find that there was not depth enough to float us. For a few minutes I was full of anxiety; but presently, as we slid nearer and nearer still to the reef, I detected the opening--a narrow pa.s.sage barely wide enough, apparently, for a boat to traverse, but of unbroken water, merely flecked here and there with the froth of the boil on either hand. We were running as straight for it as though it had been in sight for an hour; and as we were following the directions given in O'Gorman's paper, this fact seemed to point to an accurate knowledge of the place on the part of the author of those directions; which a.s.sumption I fervently hoped would be confirmed in every particular.

As we bore rapidly down upon the reef, the pa.s.sage through it gradually a.s.sumed its true proportion of width, and I saw that there was ample room to allow of the pa.s.sage, not only of the brig, but of a couple of line-of-battle ships abreast. The island had the appearance of being simply the topmost ridge of a mountain rising with a tolerably even continuous slope from the bottom of the sea; and the barrier reef was merely an excrescence or wall of coral built on to one side of it, and founded at a depth of ten fathoms below the surface of the ocean, as our lead presently told us. The basin thus formed had, during the course of ages, become partially filled with sand, forming a beautifully smooth, and even white floor, gradually sloping upward toward the surface from the reef to the sh.o.r.e of the island. All this was quite plain to me as we drove in through the break in the long, sweeping circle of foam; and, once in still water, I was able from my perch to see the sandy bottom as clearly as though it had been bare of water, every tiny fish and every fragment of weed that pa.s.sed within a hundred feet of us being perfectly visible.

Once fairly through the opening in the reef and into the basin, we hauled up to south a quarter west, which course brought our jib-boom pointing to what then had the appearance of the mouth of an insignificant stream. But as we slid athwart the basin the opening a.s.sumed an appearance of increasingly greater importance, until when within half a mile of it I saw that it was really the comparatively narrow entrance of a fairly s.p.a.cious little bay, or loch, penetrating for some distance into the land. Soon afterwards the big rock mentioned in O'Gorman's doc.u.ment separated itself from the background of bush and trees with which it had hitherto been merged, and proclaimed itself as an obelisk-like monolith of basalt rearing its apex to a height of some ninety feet above the water level. When fairly abreast of this the canvas was clewed up, and the brig slid into the loch with the way that she had on her. This loch, or channel, wound gradually round for a length of about a cable, and then widened into a nearly circular lagoon about half a mile in diameter, in the very centre of which stood a small islet, thickly overgrown with trees and dense jungle. Keeping this islet on our starboard beam, at a distance of some twenty fathoms, we slowly circled round it until it was immediately between us and the outlet to the larger lagoon, when we let go our anchor in four fathoms, amid the exultant cheers of the men, who thus found themselves triumphantly at their destination. That we actually had found the identical island referred to in O'Gorman's paper there could be no shadow of doubt, since the landmarks mentioned agreed perfectly; and my strongest emotion was one of surprise that an island of such dimensions should thus far have escaped the notice of the hydrographers.

All hands now went to breakfast; and when the men again turned to, upon the conclusion of their meal, their first act was to swarm aloft and unbend the whole of the canvas, from the royals down--a proceeding which seemed to confirm my previous surmise that they intended their sojourn upon the island to be of some duration. This task occupied them the entire morning; but when they knocked off at eight bells for dinner, the brig's spars and stays were entirely denuded of their canvas. The Irishman had some little difficulty in persuading his satellites to go to work again after dinner, there being a very evident tendency on the part of all hands to take matters easily now, after their long spell at sea; but he eventually got them out from the shadow of the bulwarks and upon their feet again, when the boats were all lowered, the entire stock of the brig's sails, new and old, struck into them, the spare booms launched overboard and towed ash.o.r.e; and the remainder of the day was spent in erecting tents upon a small open patch of gra.s.s, upon the mainland--if I may so call it--that happened to be immediately abreast the brig. Miss Onslow and myself were thus left alone together on board, n.o.body seeming to take either of us into consideration in the making of their arrangements. There were arguments both in favour of and against this arrangement; for instance, our cabins aboard the brig were unpleasantly hot and stuffy in the parallels that we had now reached, and I had no doubt that we should have found sleeping ash.o.r.e in a nice, airy tent very much more comfortable; but on the other hand, if we were to be allowed to occupy the brig we should at least be by ourselves, and the risk of nocturnal intrusion would be very much less; I was therefore disposed to consider that, on the whole, matters were more satisfactory as they were. Yet it went against the grain with me that we should be so completely ignored, and our comfort and convenience so completely neglected, by a crowd of graceless, unmannerly louts, and I was casting about for some means whereby I could compel at least a reasonable measure of consideration from them, when fortune unexpectedly intervened to help me. It happened in this wise.

After conveying ash.o.r.e the sails and spars, and erecting the tents, the men came off to the brig again, and took ash.o.r.e their chests and belongings generally, together with an abundant supply of food, and a still more abundant supply of liquor, with the natural result that a regular drunken orgy occurred that night, of such a character as to compel my grat.i.tude that Miss Onslow was not an occupant of any portion of that camp. As it was, I deemed it only prudent to maintain a watch until the riot ash.o.r.e had ceased, and the rioters had safely subsided into a drunken slumber. But my companion and I had to prepare our evening meal for ourselves, that night, or we should have gone supperless to our cabins. And, in like manner, we also had to prepare our own breakfast next morning.

That simple meal was over some considerable time before there was any stir or sign of movement in the camp on sh.o.r.e; but at length the cook appeared, still, apparently, in a semi-drunken condition, and by and by we saw the men sitting down to breakfast. They occupied an unconscionably long time over their meal, and when it was over most of the party lit their pipes and staggered away back into the sheltering shade of their tents again. There were two or three exceptions, one of whom was O'Gorman, who, after lighting his pipe, strolled down to the water's edge with a paper in his hand that looked very much like the paper from which he had quoted the instructions for making the island, and which he appeared to be studying most intently, with a dubious air that, even as I watched him, rapidly changed into one of steadily-increasing perplexity.

At length, with a gesture of savage impatience, he folded up the paper, slipped it into his breast-pocket, and went off to the tent, from which he presently emerged again followed by two very sick-and-sorry, unwilling-looking members of his gang. The trio tumbled into one of the boats, shoved off, and headed directly for the brig. Miss Onslow was on deck with me, but as soon as I saw that the little party intended boarding the brig, I directed her attention to their condition, and requested her to retire out of sight to her cabin, which she did, very submissively, somewhat to my surprise.

The distance from the sh.o.r.e to the brig was but short, and in a few minutes the boat was alongside, and O'Gorman on deck, his two companions electing to spare themselves the fatigue of dragging themselves up the brig's side, and stretching themselves out upon the thwarts instead, with their caps drawn over their faces, in which position they almost immediately fell asleep.

It was evident from O'Gorman's embarra.s.sed manner as he approached me that he had something to say, or some proposition to make, without exactly knowing how best to set about it. It seemed to me that he had unexpectedly found himself in some way at a serious disadvantage, but was anxious above all things to prevent my discovering his predicament.

Then he was civil, which I had learned to accept as an unerring indication that he wished to inveigle me into consciously or unconsciously rendering him a service.

"The top o' the mornin' to ye, misther," he began. "I hopes that you and the lady slept well last night, in this quiet, snug little harbour; havin' the brig all to yourselves, too."

"Ay," retorted I; "and having to prepare our own supper last night, and our breakfast this morning. As for quiet, the place is quiet enough; it is the drunken blackguards occupying it that make all the row. Oh yes, we slept well enough, thank you--after the crowd ash.o.r.e had guzzled themselves into a state of drunken insensibility."

"Begorra, thin," he exclaimed, in affected surprise, "did the shpalpeens keep ye awake? Whoy, Oi'd have thought you'd have heard the sorra a sound out here. But it's not goin' to happen again; it was just a bit of a jollification we threated ourselves to upon the strength of foindin' the oiland all right; but there'll be no more of it--barrin', maybe, a bit of a spree when our work's done here, and we're ready to sail for home again. And, as to your breakfast, bedad Oi forgot it intoirely, but Oi'll send the shteward off, wid ordhers that he's to do nothin' but just wait upon ye and the lady, and make things comfortable for ye."

"What the mischief does he want me to do for him?" wondered I. "It must be something of especial moment, or he would never be so extraordinarily civil and obliging!"

But I merely answered:

"Thanks! It was part of our agreement, you will remember, that we were to be properly looked after, and waited upon. And, while we are upon the subject, there is another matter I should like to mention. It is exceedingly close and stuffy below, in this climate, and I should therefore like to have an awning, or something of the kind, rigged up abaft here, so that I may be able to arrange sleeping places on deck for Miss Onslow and myself while we are lying here."

"An awning is it?" exclaimed O'Gorman, with effusion. "Begorra ye shall have that same, and welcome as the flowers of spring. Ay, and Oi'll send ye off a topsail to throw over the spanker-boom and so make ye two illigant staterooms, one on each side the deck."

"It certainly must be some very extraordinary service that he wishes me to render him!" thought I. But I answered:

"Very well. As soon as the people are sober enough to behave themselves, send them off with the canvas and some lashing, and I will tell them what I want done."