Yr Ynys Unyg Part 19

But not a minute did I stay there. We must be up and doing. Despair made us calm and cool. Everything seemed to depend on our judgment and caution. How my heart was wrung with those cries. Poor Sybil, the dear child seemed frantic, almost beside herself; she became resolute, almost fierce; she seemed ready to dare the whole band. But they are carrying them off. Can we resist flying after them? Yes, we must, we must. They are going to take them down the cliffs. But where is Oscar? He is not among them. They go. Now then, now is our time; we must get quickly down, and run to the waterfall to see what is done to our heart's treasures. We got down safely. As we emerge, one by one, we hear a slight sound, and, looking round, perceive Otty hiding in the brushwood.

Being a quick sharp boy, he had seen the pirates in a minute, and, falling down among the bushes, had escaped notice.

I clasped him in my arms, Gatty seized his bundle. We rushed into the cavern, and told our tale; not that Sybil stopped or stayed, she made her way to the waterfall at once, and arrived long before she could see them coming down the cliffs. But the ever-provident Gatty, calling on the little girls, ran out, and collected the dearly-bought food; and, taking the little girls, she went boldly to the gardens, and between them they brought in a plentiful supply of everything. She knew she could not help them, neither could we watchers. Night came on, and left us in despair and darkness.

Poor Sybil! the morning sun showed her in despair. We could not recognise the soft smiling girl in the wild, excited, agitated being before us. What were we to do? What could we do? We were ready to do anything. We came to one agreement, that separated we would not be. If we could not rescue them, we should join them in their captivity. Now all the men collect together; we see nothing of their prisoners, but imagine that they are on board the ship. We count twenty-two, the number of all we had seen. They talk earnestly. Eight go on board, and, after some bustle, return with the boat laden with empty casks. These are rolled by the rest to the stream. Now all day the whole party fill the casks, roll them back, and take them on board; they don't rest one hour.

We must do something. "Then," said Madame, "let me go out boldly among them. I will find out what they mean to do. They may take me prisoner; but, old and grey-headed, it is more likely they may not think it worth while. I will write what I find out, and put it under a stone near the old tent, if they don't allow me to return." So Madame goes, taking care to appear from quite a different side to our entrance. They surround her, she is bound to a tree, and they proceed with their watering. At last it seems done, and they all appear tired and exhausted, having worked hard, without food or rest, for eight hours. A consultation is held about Madame, and finally she is left loose and unbound, while they all run eagerly to the place where the meal is now being prepared for them. She watches her opportunity, and gradually steals up the cliff; when near the top, she is overtaken, and brought back. Dear old lady, what incredible exertions had she made; we had watched her scrambling up spots we knew she almost fainted to look at.

But that was nothing to her dauntless courage and energy. When they were all safe at their meal, Gatty ran from the upper opening to the top of the cliff, from whence they had taken her back, and, sure enough, under a stone, close by which she had dropped her handkerchief, we found a note.

This told us that the pirates intended sailing the next morning, that they were delighted at having made these prisoners, that they had done them no harm at present, but, being on board the ship, they certainly intended carrying them off, that all the men intended sleeping on sh.o.r.e but two, that Madame, if kept a prisoner, would stay near the boat, and bear a light to direct us to it in case we thought we could rescue them.

(Of course we could and would rescue them, who doubted it?) The rest she would leave to us, she could advise nothing. "Glorious," said Gatty, "now we have something to do. Would that night was come."

_Mother._--"Now here is something to amuse us until night comes on.

Suppose we write as many letters as we can, and when we go on board for the dear prisoners, let us leave them there. If these people are real pirates, their vessel may be captured, and our letters found and forwarded by the vessel that takes them. And even if no such event happens, and they are not pirates, compa.s.sion may make them forward them to their proper destination by some ship or opportunity."

A capital notion, and we proceeded to put it into execution, and altogether accomplished about a dozen letters, each directed to different members of our beloved family. All being ready, the darkness impenetrable, we looked out and saw two lights burning. One we supposed to be the ship light, the other Madame's, which she was to light when all were asleep. With the utmost expedition, but the greatest caution and silence, we slid down the rocks in a different direction from the lights, that no rolling stone or slipping feet might be heard. Once on the sand, our noiseless feet flew, as well as they could consistent with the caution necessary in such darkness, and the way in which a bright light, under such circ.u.mstances, deceives you. We kept by the moving waves in part to guide us. We came to the bathing place. Now we must creep on our hands and knees, we are so near. We touch Madame--happiness inexpressible. Silently, Gatty, Oscar, and I creep into the boat; we tie handkerchiefs and towels round the two oars; nevertheless, what a noise we make, but we are very nearly reckless. Madame wraps her arms round Sybil, lest her impatience should make her throw herself into the water, in her wish to get to her second self. Now we touch the ship. Gatty and I are on deck like cats. We have taken off our shoes that our footsteps may not be heard. Otty keeps to the boat. We creep to the lamp and get a light, and then go down stairs. We try a door, but it is locked. Gatty goes back to Otty, and tells him to move under the cabin windows, to see if he can find them out there. I try to push some of my long hair through the key-hole to attract their attention, but the key is in. I then thrust some letters under the door. I hear their voices, but am just frantic at not being able to make them hear, but Oscar has. It is all right; they know him, and speak to him. I hear Schillie say, "Where is June?" How can we be so rash, and make such a noise. I can only account for their not hearing us by the fact that they were completely knocked up with the heat and work of the day, and had no idea there were any more people on the island; and, as the boat was on sh.o.r.e, their prisoners could not escape by themselves; so that in all security they sleep profoundly. Now then, at last, the door opens, and we see them, but not a word is spoken, and, merely squeezing our fingers, they pa.s.s out. I hide the letters in different parts of the cabin, and, finding them all ready in the boat, we push off, and in a few minutes, guided by the friendly light, Serena is in Sybil's arms. They hurry off the same way we came, only treading in the waves that their footsteps may not be traced. I remain behind but to fasten up the boat in the same way we found it; and then, after some difficulty, many falls, and constant losing our way, owing to the darkness, we hear the welcome sounds of the waterfall. Heedless of a wetting, we rush in, we are safe, we are in the cavern, and then what a scene takes place. But no pen can describe it.

Mine cannot.

CHAPTER x.x.xI.

Exhausted by our many emotions, and the agony of the last twenty-four hours, we slept until very late. But our first words on awaking were, "Is the ship gone?"

Yes! she was gone from her mooring; nevertheless she was lying to, and the boat came off to sh.o.r.e with about ten men in it. They lost no time, but hurried about in every direction to find what we were certainly not going to lose sight of again. We heard them wrangling and grumbling as they searched all about Cartref Pellenig. A gun recalled them to the ship after they had spent many fruitless hours in the search. Ere sunset arrived, the low black hull of the evil ship was hardly to be traced on the horizon. Then we questioned the three heroines as to their adventures.

_Schillie._--"Odious beasts."

_Mother._--"Is that all you have to say about them?"

_Schillie._--"Wretches."

_Mother._--"But, Serena, what do you say?"

_Serena._--"They are shocking people."

_Mother._--"Well, I must try Jenny, for you did only tell us what we guessed before."

_Jenny._--"Oh, Ma'am, they are such a wicked lot!"

Finding we could not get any news out of them, we waited until they had sufficiently relieved their feelings by abusing them, and then gleaned the following information by fits and starts. To use Schillie's words they were audibly and horribly elated at having captured such notable prisoners. Also they were questioned very much about themselves, and Schillie's friend, the King of the Pirates, asked if they belonged to a party of ladies and children supposed to be lost in a yacht about two years ago. To this she replied in the affirmative, hoping to hear news from home. Then they told her that many people were employed in the search after them, and that very large rewards were offered to any one who could give information. "Then," said Schillie, "if you take us all home you shall receive rewards beyond your greatest wishes."

This conversation was held in French. He went and retailed it to his companions in Spanish, not deeming that Serena understood them. They then had a dispute amongst themselves as to whether they would retain possession of the prisoners or claim the promised reward. The dispute ran so high that they all agreed to defer it till they got to sea, having too much to do to waste the time at present. When Serena interpreted this to Schillie she was wrath beyond expression, and vowed she would jump overboard and be swallowed by a shark ere she went to sea and leave it undecided as to what their future fate must be. Then the captain asked her where all the others were? And in a fit of disgust and horror she said to him he should not take her from the island unless it was to restore them to their friends. Giving her a ferocious look he said her fate should be decided according as she behaved, and they were in no particular want of money at present, having been very successful in their late excursion. He also told her that they had been on the look out for us a long time, and wanted to know if we had not great riches, plate, and diamonds with us; he, in fact, asked so many questions, we could not but perceive they knew a great deal about us. Finding Schillie grew more and more reserved and angry, he separated the three, and proceeded to question them. Jenny declared point blank, as well as she could by signs, that all the rest of us were dead! and only those three left. Serena pretended not to understand, and fell into such hysterical tears at being separated from Schillie, that after awhile they restored them together.

"Well, Schillie," said I, "I don't think I should have objected to go with them so much, for they are generally such needy people these pirates that money would surely have tempted them to give you up."

_Schillie._--"Brutes!"

_Mother._--"And then you could have made arrangements to come for us."

_Schillie._--"Villains!"

_Mother._--"Now do be rational, why don't you listen to what I say, instead of vituperating in this manner?"

_Schillie._--"It is you that want reason. I tell you what, June, I had rather stay here all the days of my life, and live to be the last person on it, burying you every one, than be a week at sea with such a set of rascally, vile, audacious, drunken robbers as they were. Now if you love me let me hear their names no more. Let me enjoy the fact that I am with you all again. Let me do anything to drive away the horrors that beset me when in their power. I don't mean to say they were uncivil, or rude, or that they treated us unnecessarily roughly. I had a knife ready if they had done so to either of us."

So the subject was dropped, and, though we might have had some misgivings that we had not acted with great courage, and that we had lost an opportunity of being restored to the world which we might not have again, yet we were not worse off than we had been ten days ago.

Moreover, we had escaped a great and serious misfortune, namely, being separated. Also we knew the extent of what we had suffered, and we could not tell what we might have had to endure. Also we had the heartfelt satisfaction of knowing that we were not given up as lost, that kind hearts and active energies were being employed in our behalf. Were we wrong to be so hopeful that these exertions would meet with a due reward?

These thoughts gave us food for many a conversation, though we made very few allusions to the pirates themselves. Once, indeed, on remarking a few cooking utensils, and a great big bottle that were now in use among us, and which I had never seen before, "Oh," said Gatty composedly, "they had no business to burn down our house, so Otty and I cleared their caboose while you were down in the cabin, and Jenny helped us, and she allows we have now a tidy set of cooking things, and Goodness knows they have arrived just in the nick of time as ours were done up."

_Jenny._--"Indeed, Ma'am, it is quite true. Look at our old saucepans.

Past mending, even if there was a tinker next door."

_Schillie._--"Very sensible brat! I did not think she had such _nous_ in her."

_Mother._--"Really I think we ought to give you a vote of thanks, Gatty."

_Madame._--"But surely, my dear Madam, the want of principle Gertrude has shewn ought to be reproved. It was (pray do not think me unkind) but I am afraid I can call it nothing but a theft on her part."

_Hargrave_ (bursting into the conversation _nolens volens_).--"I beg pardon, ladies, but I must say Miss Gertrude has hacted in a manner surprisingly delightful. Them 'orrifying hannimals 'as destroyed 'eaps of our best dresses and millineries; and hif Miss could but 'ave tossed their best suits hoverboard my mind would be hat rest, and my 'eart heased."

So Gatty got applauded on all sides, for Madame was reminded if it had not been for her thieving propensities she would never have had the nice quant.i.ties of warm water we could now heat for her bath. Therefore she pocketed her principles at the shrine of her baths, at least to a certain extent.

CHAPTER x.x.xII.

Quiet prevailed, lessons predominated, we were all getting very stupid again. Schillie was very much subdued after her sojourn with the pirates, and took to following me everywhere, as the faithful dog follows his master. Also, she was very amenable to all my wishes and worked like a horse in the gardens and potatoe grounds, because I thought we had better lay in great stores of food, for fear the pirates should come again. Besides this work, we plaited gra.s.s into ropes, and made a ladder or two, with which we practised running up and down into the cavern from the opening at the top. It was something to do, and might be useful. The children were like cats at last, and used to frighten me out of my wits by their feats of agility.

So many of our clothes had been destroyed that it became necessary to do something towards replacing them; and, after various attempts, Schillie and I constructed two rude weaving machines, in which, with hard work, we made a coa.r.s.e kind of cloth. This was dyed any colour we fancied, and then made into a long loose dress, with hanging sleeves, capable of being tucked up, and a broad belt to confine them round the waist. We found them very convenient and cool, only it was incessant work, spinning, weaving, and making them. We certainly did not eat the bread of idleness, and many a day's holiday was asked from Madame, only to work the poor girls harder at spinning, weaving, or gardening. But they enjoyed it, and grew like palm trees, looking so pretty and lively, that it was quite a sight to look at them: Sybil fair as a lily, and bright as a rose; Gatty glowing like the bright hibiscus; the pale and graceful Serena, faultless in form and action; while the little ones seemed to be growing up into what the elder girls had been when we first landed on the island.

The rainy season came and went. G.o.d blessed us in our house and field, and in the hearts content that filled every mind.

Intuitively we all seemed to feel that a good time was coming for us, and we prepared for the fine weather with fresh energies and renewed hopes, not unmixed with the notion that we should have dangers and difficulties to encounter, ere we should be finally restored to all we loved.

We encouraged each other in every way. We relied on some of our letters reaching their proper destination, we a.s.sured each other that another six months would not pa.s.s without our friends coming to look for us.

We made every preparation, stores of food for a full year were stowed away in the cavern. We concocted a kitchen, from whence the smoke could never betray us, and we sat down in patient expectation, and full trust in our Almighty Father, that should the pirates come again we were quite prepared; therefore, without fear, though with a little palpitation of heart, we received the news one brilliant morning that a sail was to be seen on the horizon.

It came nearer and nearer and yet kept off the island. We might have thought, for a time, that perchance it was our friends, but one after another allowed the mournful fact to escape from our lips, that it was indeed the pirates' vessel.

Supposing us to be inexperienced in vessels, and not likely to know one again, after seeing it once, we imagined they kept dodging on and off the island to deceive us, and that they would do this until dark, and then landing as best they might, they would thus take us by surprise.

They little knew how sharp was the watch we kept, as much prompted by affection as fear.