The Girl Crusoes Part 23

Within a short distance of the beach the chine was covered with vegetation, among which they saw several cocoa-nut palms. To these they hastened in the hope of finding some nuts upon the ground. But there were none. Tommy looked longingly up into the trees, but it was impossible to climb them, and the girls hurried on again, expecting to find somewhere a rill trickling from the high ground to the sea.

When they had gone some distance the trees thinned, and they saw, some hundreds of yards in front of them, a sheer wall of rock, rising to a considerable height and dotted here and there with scrub.

"Do you know, I believe that's the end of the ridge," said Elizabeth, who had a shrewder eye than the others for country, and had a better notion as to the part of the island to which they had come.

"I don't care," cried Tommy; "_that's_ what I want." She pointed to a sparkling waterfall that plunged over a ledge a good way to their left.

They ran eagerly towards it, scrambling over impediments, and soon came to the stream which the waterfall fed. Then they threw themselves down, and gulped large draughts of the cold water. After resting for a while on the gra.s.sy bank, Elizabeth looked at her watch.

"It is past two," she said; "what a time we have been!"

"Without breakfast or dinner," said Tommy dolefully, "and no chance of supper either, as far as I can see, if we have to row back."

"Perhaps we had better walk it," suggested Elizabeth; "I've had enough rowing for one day."

"Can we find the way?" asked Mary.

"If we are near the end of the ridge, as I think we are," replied Elizabeth, "we can't go far wrong. It takes us half-an-hour or more from the ridge home, and I shouldn't think it would take us long to reach a place that we recognize."

"You mean the orange grove," said Tommy; "I won't go past it, I absolutely won't."

"Well, dear, I dare say we can go round about," said Elizabeth placably, "though I'm so tired and hungry, and I am sure you are too, that the shorter our walk the better. Let us rest a little longer until it's not quite so hot. But we mustn't stay too long, in case I am mistaken and we find ourselves lost in the dark."

About half-an-hour later they rose to make their way homeward.

Elizabeth had resolved to follow up the stream until they reached the waterfall, then to strike to the left, skirting the precipice. She expected to come to the thick belt of woodland of which the orange grove was a part. Tommy did not go ahead as her custom was. Since her fright she had been a more sedate and sober Tommy.

They had gone but a short distance upstream though a fringe of trees, when all at once they halted and started back. The trees suddenly came to an end, and a few yards in front of them stood a tiny structure, which, ignorant as they were, they knew for a native hut. It was conical in shape, made apparently of gra.s.s and thatch, with a small opening only high enough to crawl through. It was placed at the foot of a slope, and the s.p.a.ce before it had evidently been cleared by hand, for there were stumps of trees here and there.

The three girls, struck with consternation, slipped back within the shelter of the trees. Tommy clung to Elizabeth's hand. Here was confirmation of her story. It said much for her restraint, or perhaps for the renewal of her fears, that she did not turn upon Mary with a whispered "I told you so."

Elizabeth had determined if she should see a native to show a bold front and try to make friends with him. Now, though Tommy on one side and Mary on the other were pulling her back, she stood her ground, whispering, "Wait: perhaps it is deserted." But she had scarcely uttered the words when, from among the trees on the other side of the stream, about two hundred yards away, they caught sight of a native approaching. They were only aware that it was the figure of a man: all Elizabeth's bold resolutions evaporated. Without waiting to take in any details of the stranger's appearance they fled noiselessly among the trees, swerving to the left of the course they had intended to follow.

They ran until they were out of breath, glancing round fearfully every now and again. Had they been seen? Would the savage pursue them?

There was no sign of pursuit, and when breathlessness forced them to walk, they stepped out quickly, not daring to speak.

They were in a part of the island utterly unfamiliar to them.

Elizabeth had quite lost her bearings. The vegetation was very thick; even where it was not actual forest there were bushes in clumps, large tangled ma.s.ses of creepers, and briers which, as they forced their way through, tore their clothes and scratched their hands and faces. They stumbled over obstacles at almost every step. Here and there the ground rose steeply, and the haste of their ascent made them pant for breath.

After a time Elizabeth, always quickest to recover her self-possession, began to reproach herself for giving way so easily to panic.

"What an idiot I was!" she said in a whisper. "The idea of running from a solitary creature!"

"But he was a cannibal!" said Mary.

"How do we know that? Was he the owner of your little brown face, Tommy?"

"Yes--no--I don't know," murmured Tommy. "I don't think so."

"I ought to have waited," continued Elizabeth. "We might at least have seen whether he was young or old. Why, for all we know he is a white man, cast away like ourselves."

"He had no coat on, I saw that," said Mary.

"He may be a native hermit, then. There are such people among the savages, I suppose."

"But there may be hundreds," said Tommy.

"Living in one little hut? Nonsense!"

"There may be other huts, we can't tell," said Mary. "The savage may have been coming from one of the others."

"That's true! It is more likely that the man has companions, I admit.

Well, if I can't pluck up courage to go among them, we must simply take care to keep on our side of the island, and that means starvation in time. But where are we? The sun is getting low: it will be dark soon.

Let us run again."

They found themselves soon entering another patch of forest, and began to be seriously alarmed at the prospect of being overtaken by night before they reached home.

Elizabeth thought it best to keep straight on, for by so doing they must come in time to the sh.o.r.e. But it is difficult to judge direction in the forest, and when darkness descended upon them while they were still among the trees, Elizabeth was forced to the conclusion that they had been wandering round and round all the time.

"It's of no use, girls," she said; "we can never find our way in the dark. We shall have to stay here for the night."

They had been without food all day. Utterly worn out by hunger, exertion and alarm, they huddled together at the foot of a tree and fell into an uneasy sleep. Several times during the night they were disturbed by slight noises in the brushwood around them, or in the trees overhead. But nothing happened to alarm them, and when dawn glimmered through the trees they rose, a haggard and sorry trio, and set off once more to find a way home.

Only a few minutes' walk uphill brought them to the ridge, from which they could see the orange grove. They were so desperately hungry and thirsty that they were ready to face all hazards for the sake of some fruit. They hurried to the grove, s.n.a.t.c.hed up a few oranges and bananas, and devoured them as they continued on their homeward way.

When they reached their hut, their feeling of security was alloyed by the distressing thought that they had lost their boat. The savages, whose settlement was near the cove at which they had landed, and who probably appropriated the fruits of the cocoa-nut palms there, would certainly discover the boat drawn up on the beach. The girls had always regarded it as a last refuge; they could always use it to row out to any ship that came reasonably near, if they failed to attract the attention of those on board in any other way. They felt that its disappearance very likely doomed them to a lifelong imprisonment on the island, and their hearts were heavy as lead. Not being without imagination, they had often in their secret thoughts looked into the future, and seen themselves growing older, falling ill, one or the other of them dying; and the possibility of being the last survivor, shut up in this ocean prison-house without human companionship, filled each of them with terror.

With the morning common-sense a.s.serted itself.

"We shall be perfect ninnies if we don't try to get back our boat,"

said Elizabeth. "I've been thinking a good deal in the night, and the more I think the more convinced I am that there can't be many natives on the island. Why should they keep to themselves so? Why don't they ever come to this part? If only I could cease being a coward for five minutes I'd brave them. Anyhow we ought to walk back to the place we landed at yesterday and bring our boat away. It mayn't have been discovered yet."

"But suppose it has been discovered?" said Mary.

"They'd probably leave it on the sh.o.r.e. If we walk over there this evening and get there about dark, we might steal it away. It's our own property."

"I don't want to go near the place," said Tommy. "Besides, we might lose our way."

"Not if we walk over the cliffs," replied Elizabeth. "We have never tried that. The woods are thick, but we might find the walk easier than we think. At any rate, it would be shorter than going all round by the ridge. You see, Tommy, we need not go near the hut at all.

Don't come if you feel nervous. Mary and I can row the boat back."

"No, I won't be left. If you go I go too. If we don't see the boat where we left it, you won't go any farther, will you?"

"I won't if it is not in sight," said Elizabeth, "but if it is anywhere within reach it would be silly not to try to get it. We want some fish badly. Let's go fishing this morning, and rest all the afternoon, so as to be fresh for our walk."

So it was arranged, but the plan had to be modified. While Tommy and Mary were fishing from the rocks, it occurred to Elizabeth to climb to the cliff top and see if the way she suggested was practicable. She was disappointed. Not only was the forest dense, and the undergrowth an almost impenetrable ma.s.s of th.o.r.n.y thicket, but the ground was much broken by fissures and small creva.s.ses, so that, instead of being easier than the route across the island, this way promised to be longer and much more troublesome.

When she returned to her sisters she found them cheerful over a finer catch than usual. Taking advantage of their high spirits she told them the result of her expedition, and employed all her persuasiveness to induce them to attempt the route by the ridge. She overcame Tommy's reluctance, and then tactfully dropped the subject, hoping that the young girl's courage would not ooze away before it was time to start.

About four o'clock, after making a good meal, they set off, Tommy exacting a promise that Elizabeth would turn back at the least sign of danger. They walked quickly until they had crossed the ridge; then, avoiding the orange grove, they struck off more directly to the east, moving more slowly, and with many a cautious glance around.