The Pirate Island Part 33

Bob thereupon set off on his mission of destruction, while Lance and Poole with a couple of mauls began to knock out the wedges which Evelin, foreseeing from the very inception of the work some such emergency as the present, had introduced in the construction of the keel-blocks.

In a few minutes both parties met near the middle of the vessel, and the last pair of wedges were knocked out.

"That's a good job well over," exclaimed Poole; "and precious glad I am now that I thought of soaping them ways this morning. I _knowed_ this here business must come afore long, and I detarmined to get as far ahead with the work as possible. Now I s'pose, sir, we're all ready?"

"Yes, I think so," answered Lance, "but I'll just go forward and take a look along the keel to see that she is clear everywhere."

He accordingly did so, and had the gratification of seeing by the still brilliant light of the fires that the keel was a good six inches clear of the blocks, fore and aft.

"All clear!" he shouted. "Now, go on board, everybody. Light the fuse, Robert, and come on board as soon as possible."

"Ay, ay, sir," answered Bob from the not very distant battery.

A tiny spark of light appeared for an instant in the darkness high up on the face of the rock as our hero struck a match, and in another couple of minutes he was running nimbly up the steep plank leading from the rocks beneath to the schooner's deck.

"Kick down that plank, Robert, my lad, and see that it falls clear of everything," said Lance. "Are we all clear fore and aft?"

"All clear, sir," came the hearty reply from various parts of the deck.

"Are you ready with the axe forward there, Kit?"

"All ready, sir."

"_Then cut_."

A dull _cheeping_ thud of the axe was immediately heard, accompanied by a sharp _tw.a.n.g_ as the tautly strained line parted; then followed the sound of the sh.o.r.es falling to the ground; there was a gentle jar, and the schooner began to move.

"She moves!--she moves!" was the cry. "Hurrah! Now she gathers way."

"Yes," shouted Lance, joyously. "She's going. Success to the _Petrel_"--as he shivered to pieces on the stem-head a bottle of wine which the steward, anxious that the launch should be shorn of none of its honours, had brought up from the cabin and hastily thrust into his hand. "Three cheers for the saucy _Petrel_, my lads--hip, hip, hip, hurrah!"

The three cheers rang l.u.s.tily out upon the still air of the breathless night as the schooner shot with rapidly increasing velocity down the ways and finally plunged into the mirrorlike waters of the bay, dipping her stern deeply and ploughing up a smooth gla.s.sy furrow of water fringed at its outer edge with a coruscating border of vivid phosph.o.r.escent light.

"The boats--the boats again!" suddenly shouted Bowles, as the schooner, now fairly afloat, shot rapidly stern-foremost away from the rock--"Good G.o.d! they are right in our track; we shall cut them in two."

"That is their look-out," grimly responded Captain Staunton; "if they had been wise they would have accepted their defeat and retired to the sh.o.r.e; as, however, they have not done so, they must take the consequences. Remember, lads, not a man of them must be suffered to come on board."

A warning shout from the helmsman of the pinnace announced his sudden discovery of the danger which threatened the boats, and he promptly jammed his helm hard a-starboard. The launch was on his port side; and the result was a violent collision between the two boats, the pinnace striking the launch with such force as to send the latter clear of the schooner whilst the pinnace herself, recoiling from the shock, stopped dead immediately under the schooner's stern. There was a sharp sudden crash as the _Petrel's_ rudder clove its irresistible way through the doomed boat, and a yell of dismay from its occupants, several of whom made a spring at the schooner's taffrail, only to be remorselessly thrust off again.

"There is a chance for them yet," said the skipper, as the schooner continued to drive astern leaving the wretches struggling in the water, "the launch has escaped; she can pick them up."

At length the schooner's way slackened sufficiently to enable Lance, by looking over the bow and stern, to ascertain her exact trim.

"It is perfect," he exclaimed to Captain Staunton as he rejoined the latter near the companion, "she sits accurately down to her proper water-line everywhere, thus proving the correctness of all my calculations--a result which pleases as much as it surprises me, since I have had to depend entirely on my memory for the necessary _formula_.

Well, Captain Staunton, my task is now finished; here is the schooner, fully rigged and fairly afloat; take charge of her, my dear sir; and may she fully answer all your expectations!"

"Thanks, Evelin; a thousand thanks!" exclaimed the skipper, heartily grasping Lance's proffered hand. "You have indeed executed your self- imposed task faithfully and well. Let me be the mouth-piece of all our party in conveying to you our most hearty expressions of grat.i.tude for the n.o.ble manner in which you have aided us in our great strait. To you is entirely due the credit of bringing our project thus far to a successful issue; but for your skill, courage, and resolution we might have been compelled to remain for years--Ha! what is that?"

A low rumbling roar was faintly heard in the distance, rapidly increasing in volume of sound, and breaking in with startling effect upon the breathless stillness of the night.

"It is another earthquake," exclaimed Lance. "Thank Heaven, we are afloat! Had it caught us upon the stocks it would doubtless have shaken the cradle to pieces, and, in all probability, thus frustrated our escape."

The ominous sound drew swiftly nearer and nearer, filling the startled air with a chaos of sound which speedily became absolutely deafening in its intensity; the waters of the bay broke first into long lines of quivering ripples, then into a confused jumble of low foaming surges; the schooner jarred violently, as though she was being dragged rapidly over a rocky bottom; there was a hideous groaning grinding sound on sh.o.r.e, soon mingled with that of the crashing fall of enormous ma.s.ses of earth and rock, above which could still be feebly heard the piercing shriek of horror raised by the occupants of the launch. The shock pa.s.sed; but was immediately followed by one of still greater intensity; the waters were still more violently agitated; the schooner was swept helplessly hither and thither, rolling heavily, and shipping great quant.i.ties of water upon her deck as the shapeless surges madly leaped and boiled and swirled around her. Finally, a long line of luminous foam was seen to be rushing rapidly down upon the schooner from the harbour's mouth, stretching completely across the bay. As it came nearer it was apparent that this was the foaming crest of a wall of water some twelve feet in height which was rushing down the bay at railway-speed.

"Hold on, every one of you, for your lives!" hoa.r.s.ely shouted the skipper, as the wave swept threateningly down upon the schooner; and the next moment it burst upon them with a savage roar.

Luckily, the _Petrel's_ bows were presented fairly to it, or the consequences would have been disastrous. As it was it curled in over the stem, an unbroken ma.s.s of water, filling the decks in an instant and carrying the schooner irresistibly along with it toward the sh.o.r.e at the bottom of the bay.

"Let go the anchor," shouted Captain Staunton, as soon as he could get his head above water.

But before this could be done the wave had swept past, rushing with a loud thundering roar far up the beach even to the capstan-house, and then rapidly subsiding.

"Get the canvas on her at once," ordered Captain Staunton--"close-reefed main-sail, fore-sail, and jib; we shall have some wind presently, please G.o.d, and we'll make use of it to get out of this as speedily as possible--Merciful Heaven! what now?"

A sullen roar; a rattling crash as of a peal of heaviest thunder; and the whole scene was suddenly lit up with a lurid ruddy glow. Turning their startled glances inland, our adventurers saw that the lofty hill- top, dominating the head of the ravine, near which was situated the gold cavern, had burst open and was vomiting forth vast volumes of flame and smoke. As they looked the top of the hill visibly crumbled and melted away, the flames shot up in fiercer volumes, vast quant.i.ties of red-hot ashes, mingled with huge ma.s.ses of glowing incandescent rock, were projected far into the air; a terrific storm of thunder and lightning suddenly burst forth to add new terrors to the scene; and to crown all, a new rift suddenly burst open in the side of the hill, out of which there immediately poured a perfect ocean of molten lava.

In the face of this stupendous phenomenon Captain Staunton's order to make sail pa.s.sed unheeded; the entire faculties of every man on board the schooner were wholly absorbed in awe-struck contemplation of the terrific spectacle.

Onward rolled the fiery flood. It wound in a zigzag serpentine course down the side of the hill, and soon reached the thick wood at its base and at the head of the valley. The stately forest withered, blazed for a brief moment, and vanished in its fatal embrace, and now it came sweeping down the steep declivity toward the bay.

This terrible sight aroused and vivified the paralysed energies of those on board the _Petrel_. Without waiting for a repet.i.tion of the order to make sail they sprang with panic-stricken frantic haste to cast off the gaskets, and in an incredibly short time the schooner was under canvas.

Still there was no wind. Not the faintest breath of air came to stir the flapping sails of the now gently rolling vessel; and her crew could do nothing but wait in feverish anxious expectancy for the long-delayed breeze, watching meanwhile the majestic irresistible onward sweep of that fiery deluge.

At last, thank G.o.d! there was a faint puff of wind; it came, sighed past, and died away. And now, another. The sails caught it, bellied out, flapped again, filled once more, and the _Petrel_ gathered way.

She had gradually swung round until her bow pointed straight for the capstan-house; and Captain Staunton sprang to the wheel, sending it with a single vigorous spin hard over. The breeze was still very light, and the craft responded but slowly to her helm; but at length she came up fairly upon a wind and made a short stretch to the eastward, tacking the moment that she had gathered sufficient way to accomplish the manoeuvre.

She was now on the port tack, stretching obliquely across the bay in a southerly direction, when a startled call from Poole, repeated by all the rest, directed Captain Staunton's gaze once more landward.

"Look--look--merciful powers, it is Ralli!" was Lance's horrified exclamation as he grasped the skipper convulsively by the shoulder and pointed with a trembling hand to the sh.o.r.e.

Sure enough it _was_ Ralli. The pirates had either not waited to seek him, or had not thought of looking for him in the cottage before setting out on their expedition against the shipyard, and he had consequently been left there. But somehow--doubtless in the desperation of mortal fear excited by the dreadful phenomena in operation around him--he had at last succeeded in freeing himself from his bonds, and was now seen running toward the beach, screaming madly for help.

The stream of lava was only a few yards behind him, and it had now spread out to the entire width of the very narrow valley. The unhappy wretch was flying for his life; terror seemed to have endowed him with superhuman strength and speed, and for a moment it almost appeared as though he would come out a winner in the dreadful race.

"'Bout ship!" sharply rang out the skipper's voice; "he is a fiend rather than a man, but he must not perish thus horribly if we can save him."

He put the helm hard down as he spoke, and the schooner shot up into the wind, with her sails sluggishly flapping. But before she had time to get fairly round the helm was suddenly righted and then put hard up.

"Keep all fast," commanded Captain Staunton, "it is too late; no mortal power can save him. See! he is already in the grasp of his fate."

Such was indeed the case. The fierce breath of that onward-rolling flood of fire was upon him; its scorching heat sapped his strength; he staggered and fell. With the rapidity of a lightning flash he was up and away again; but--Merciful G.o.d--see! his clothing is all ablaze; and listen to those dreadful shrieks of fear and agony--Ah! miserable wretch, now the flood itself is upon him; see how the waves of fire curl round him--he throws up his arms with a harsh despairing blood-curdling yell--he sinks--he is gone--and the surging fiery river sweeps grandly on until it plunges with an awful hissing sound into the waters of the bay and the whole scene becomes blotted out by the vast curtain of steam which shoots up and spreads itself abroad.

"What a night of horror! it is h.e.l.l upon earth!" gasps the skipper, as he turns his eyes away and devotes himself once more solely to the task of navigating the schooner; "thank G.o.d the breeze is freshening, and we may now hope to be soon out of this and clear of it all. Phew! what terrific lightning, and what an infernal combination of deafening sounds!"

Fortunate was it for the schooner and her crew that the wind was from the southward, or blowing directly down into the bay; otherwise they would speedily have been lost in the thick clouds of steam which rose from the water, or set on fire by the dense shower of red-hot ashes which now began to fall thickly about them. As it was, though the wind was against them, and they were compelled to beat up the bay, the wind kept back the steam, and also to a great extent the falling ashes. But, notwithstanding these favourable circ.u.mstances, the crew were obliged to keep the decks deluged with water to prevent their being ignited.

Gradually, however, the _Petrel_ drew further and further beyond the influence of this danger; and soon the rock at the harbour's mouth was sighted. Captain Staunton was at first somewhat anxious about risking the pa.s.sage out to sea, being doubtful whether the explosion of the magazine had yet taken place; but a little reflection satisfied him that it _must_ have occurred, as they had been drifting about the bay for nearly an hour, and he determined to push on.

Suddenly there was a shout from the look-out forward: "Boat ahead!"