The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton Part 16

We put on the cabin hatches, spread out our sleeping mats and made ourselves comfortable for the night, and after half an hour's smoke, we fell asleep too tired to talk.

a little after midnight the cool breeze suddenly died away, and both Tepi and myself awoke almost at the same moment.

"The air hath grown hot, and is hard to breathe, master," said the big man "I fear a storm is near."

It had indeed become very hot and stifling, but on looking at the barometer, I saw there was no change, and so felt no concern, for we were in an excellent position, no matter how hard, and from where it might blow. In half an hour or so, a few heavy splashes of rain fell, then a sudden shower, which necessitated us lifting off the hatch and going into the cabin, and it was then that Tepi complained to me of a severe headache, from which I was also beginning to suffer.

I had just struck a match to take another look at the gla.s.s, when suddenly the boat began to tremble violently, and then gave such a sudden jerk at her cable that I fell forward on my face.

"_Mafuie! Mafuie!_" ("Earthquake! earthquake!") cried Tepi in terror-stricken tones, as he clutched the coamings and looked seaward.

"Oh, Simi, look, look! The sea, the sea! We perish!"

May G.o.d spare me from ever seeing such another sight! A black towering wall of water was rushing towards the boat, and ere I could frame my lips to utter an appeal for mercy to the Almighty it was upon us, and lifting us up on the summit of its awful crest, hurled us sh.o.r.eward to destruction. Then I remembered no more.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lifting us up on the summit of its awful crest 212]

Two weeks later I awoke to life and misery in a wide, low-ceiled room.

Tepi, with his arm in a sling, was bending over me, and sitting beside my bed were two padres.

"Where am I, good fathers?" I asked.

"In San Ignacio, my son," replied the elder of the two. "G.o.d has spared you and this Indian sailor of yours to render thanks to Him and the Holy Virgin for His mercy."

"And where are my friends--the two girls and Tematau? Tell me, Tepi!

Tell me," I said, with a dull terror at my heart. "Why do you shake and hide your face?" Then I turned to the priests.

"For G.o.d's sake, tell me, gentlemen," and I clutched the hand of the one nearest to me.

"In Paradise, my son. They and three hundred other poor souls rendered up their lives to G.o.d thirteen days ago. Scarcely a score of people in Tarafofo escaped."

The shock was too much for me, and I fell back again.

As soon as I was strong enough for the journey I visited the scene, and was shown, on the spot where once the church had stood, a bare, grim mound. Underneath it lay all that was mortal of Lucia, Niabon, Tematau, and three hundred others, who had in one swift moment been sent to eternity that dreadful night. Some of the few survivors, who, under the direction of a priest, and the Governor of San Ignacio, were erecting a tall wooden cross at the foot of the great grave, led me to the site of the house in which my dear companions had met their deaths. Nine other people were in the house when it fell and buried the sleepers, and the agony must have been short for them all.

The tidal wave which accompanied the earthquake had hurled the boat and Tepi and myself for many hundreds of yards inland. I was picked up in the boat herself, stunned and severely injured. Tepi was carried into a rice field, and although his arm was broken, he at once set out in search of me, and the faithful fellow had come with me when I was carried in a bullock cart to San Ignacio, where the doctor and priests had brought me round after two weeks' dangerous illness.

Before leaving Guam I spent two months with my friend Jose Otano, who tried hard to make me stay with him. At his house poor Lucia's heart-broken sister came to see me very often, and I bade her farewell with genuine sorrow.

Then one day Tepi and I turned our faces once more to the islands of the south--and so the story of my strange adventure is told.